
Class 
Book. 



1±L_ 






Copyright N?._ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



STORIES FROM 

SCOTTISH HISTORY 



SELECTED FROM 
SCOTT'S "TALES OF A GRANDFATHER 



BY 

MADALEN EDGAR, M.A. 



Old unhappy far-off things, 
And battles long ago." 

Wordsworth 



NEW YORK 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cooies Received 

MAY 29 1906 

„„ Copyright Entry 
CLASS CL XXc. No, 

' copy b; 






Copyright, 1906, 
By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 



CONTENTS 



CHAP. 





Preface . 






Introduction . 




I. 


For Home and Country . 




II. 


A Patriot in Arms 




III. 


Defeat and Death 




IV. 


A New Champion 




V. 


The Dawn of Hope . 




VI. 


On Guard . 




VII. 


Pursued . 




VIII. 


At Daggers Drawn . 




IX. 


The Taking of the Castles — 
(i) Edinburgh 

(2) Linlithgow 

(3) Roxburgh 




X. 


Before the Battle 




XI. 


Bannockburn 




XII. 


The Merciful Knight 




XIII. 


A Border Raid . 




XIV. 


Good Lord James and the B 
Heart .... 


ruce's 


XV. 


Battle and Tourney 




XVI. 


Douglas at Otterburn 




XVII. 


Clans Chattan and Kay . 




XVIII. 


The Poet King 

iii 





IV 



Contents 



CHAP. 

XIX. James II and the Black Douglasses- 
(i) At Edinburgh Castle 

(2) At Thrieve Castle 

(3) At Stirling Castle 

(4) At Roxburgh Castle 
XX. A King's Fears . 

XXI. Cochran and Bell-the-Cat 

XXII. The Fatal Shrift 

XXIII. Stout Hearts 

XXIV. A Gallant King . 
XXV. The Strong Ship Lion . 

XXVI. Flodden Field 

XXVII. A Dash for Liberty 

XXVIII. John Armstrong . 

XXIX. The Goodman of Ballengiech 

XXX. WlSHART AND BEATON 

XXXI. Queen Mary's Youth . 

XXXII. Kirk o' Field 

XXXIII. The Earl of Bothwell 

XXXIV. The Queen's Flight . 
XXXV. Troublous Times 

XXXVI. Queen Mary in Prison 
XXXVII. Fotheringay Castle 
XXXVIII. James VI and Kinmont Willie 
XXXIX. The Gowrie-House Mystery 
XL. The Union .... 
Chronological Table . 



Preface 

TO present a selection from Sir Walter 
Scott's " Tales of a Grandfather " ap- 
pears at first sight to be taking an 
unpardonable liberty with such an established 
favorite. 

The size of the storehouse, however, is apt to 
discourage search for the treasures within, and it 
is possible that many of the " Tales " may be en- 
joyed by children who yet could not make their 
way through the whole book. 

In the present volume, the stories are taken 
from the First Series, and, since space forbids a 
wider range, all lie between the rise of William 
Wallace and the Union of the crowns. This 
limit, unfortunately, excludes the Tale of Mac- 
beth, which, largely perhaps from the simplicity 
of its language, is one of Sir Walter's best-told 
" Tales " ; but the story is beyond the region of 
authentic history, and is, besides, well known to 
most children from Shakespeare's play. It was 
also with much regret that the account of 
v 



vi Preface 

Malcolm Canmore and his Saxon Queen was 
omitted, as well as the viyid description of the 
Battle of the Standard. 

The selections do not represent every phase in 
the history of the three centuries embraced, nor 
are they claimed to be in strict quantitative pro- 
portion to their historical importance. Occasion- 
ally an incident is omitted for the sole reason that 
Scott's treatment of it is too weighty to admit of 
its inclusion in a simple book of stories. For 
instance, it may seem strange that an event of 
such moment as the Reformation should, with 
its dauntless hero Knox, have been passed over 
in silence, but it was felt that there was too little 
incident in the chapters dealing with the subject 
to render them sufficiently interesting for the 
present purpose. 

Consecutive narration has been aimed at, and 
where the connection between the chapters is 
interrupted, the chronological table on the last 
pages of the book may be of use in bridging the 
interval. 

At certain points, principally at the commence- 
ment of chapters, some small rearrangement of 
the text has been necessary, but with these un- 
important exceptions the original has been faith- 
fully followed. 



Preface vii 

The above explanations indicate the scope of 
this little book. It is hoped that Sir Walter 
Scott's lively sketches may interest his young 
readers in the history of that country which he 
loved so dearly and depicted so well. 



Introduction 

IT was in the summer of 1827 that Sir Walter 
Scott told his six-year-old grandson many 
stories of Scottish kings and warriors as, 
mounted on " Douce Davie " and the Shetland 
pony " Marion," they rode together through the 
woods round Abbotsford. 

While autumn was passing into winter, and 
there were rainy days to spend in his library, Sir 
Walter wrote out the stories which had delighted 
his small audience under the trees, and dedicated 
these " Tales of a Grandfather" to Hugh Little- 
john, Esq. (properly John Hugh Lockhart), in 
words which are still read by hundreds of people, 
though the child to whom they were addressed 
died more than seventy years ago. 

In the " Tales of a Grandfather " we have a 
complete history of Scotland down to the end of 
the Rebellion of '45, when Charles Edward Stuart, 
the Bonnie Prince Charlie of Jacobite song, made 
his unsuccessful attempt to win the Scottish throne 
from George II. Besides telling us of events in 



x Introduction 

Scottish history, Sir Walter describes the laws and 
customs of the country in different times — matters 
which are as important, and often quite as inter- 
esting, as any account of battles and heroic deeds. 
With so much to write about, it is no wonder 
Scott has given us a large book. Its size is almost 
eight times that of the present selections, which 
are taken from the earlier part of " Tales of a 
Grandfather." 

We generally find that the best stories are 
those told by people who have themselves seen 
what they describe, or by those who can most 
fully imagine how things appeared at the time 
and place they speak of. Sir Walter Scott's 
lively pictures are due to two facts : first, that 
he had himself visited the places mentioned in his 
History, many of them being favorite haunts of 
his, while his antiquarian tastes made him familiar 
with the armor, dress, and implements of olden 
times ; and secondly, that he had the gift of 
peopling historic sites with the appropriate figures 
of those who had once moved in them. To con- 
jure up the past was a favorite amusement with 
Sir Walter, and wherever a place recalled to his 
mind some famous deed, the actors, in his imag- 
ination, moved once more on the scenes, and his- 
tory lived again. 



Introduction xi 

Of course, imagination alone could not have 
performed such feats. Scott had (to use his own 
phrase) " fastened like a tiger " upon every col- 
lection of old songs or romances which chance 
threw in his way, and from these, and from books 
of Scottish history and tradition, he gained so 
accurate a knowledge of distant times that he 
could indulge his fancy without letting it lead 
him astray. To wander through the country was 
another of his pleasures. Sometimes his excur- 
sions were on horseback, more often on foot. In 
his early days, in spite of his lameness, he would 
walk long distances, going on in a dreamy fashion 
much farther than he intended. At that time 
twenty to thirty miles a day did not seem to him 
an unreasonable amount of walking. Indeed, his 
father, who was sometimes annoyed by the fits of 
wandering which led the lad so far from home, 
would say that in his belief Walter was born to 
be a strolling peddler ! 

When he had a week or so at his disposal, in 
the summers which followed his being called to 
the Bar, he explored Liddesdale, a lonely district 
where many a dismantled Border tower reminded 
him that — 

"A time there was 
When this hill-pass 



xii Introduction 

With castle, keep and peel, 1 

Stood iron-teethed, 

Like warrior sheathed 
In mail from head to heel." 

These " raids " into Liddesdale are a good ex- 
ample of the way in which Scott picked up much 
of his curious lore. Making his way through 
a part of the country where there were no inns 
at which to spend the night, he would find shelter 
each evening in some lonely farmhouse or shep- 
herd's cottage, and from his hosts would learn 
the traditions of the place, often in the words of 
a Border ballad which had never found its way 
into print. These old-world verses delighted him 
at the time he heard them from the lips of 
country-folk, and, sinking into his memory, they 
were a treasure to the end of his life. Without 
effort he could recall any number of rhymes. He 
was known, to repeat a ballad of eighty-eight 
stanzas which he had heard only once — and this 
after a considerable time had elapsed. 

So, while some historians are content to range 
libraries in search of material for their writings, 
Scott, though making full use of books, went 
literally farther afield. But it must not be sup- 
posed that his early wanderings, such as the 

1 Peel : a square tower. 



Introduction xiii 

" Liddesdale raids," were undertaken with a view 
to writing at a future date. It was without a 
thought of the use he might afterward make of 
such lore, that he first entered on the quest of 
collecting local stories and verses. As an old 
Scottish friend of his remarked long after : " He 
was makin' himsel' a' the time, but he didna ken 
maybe what he was about till years had passed. 
At first he thought o' little, I dare say, but the 
queerness and the fun." 

Sir Walter Scott's knowledge of the history of 
his country is quite as remarkable for the uncom- 
mon nature of the facts he gathered, as for their 
enormous quantity. This is just what we should 
expect, knowing of his delight in escaping from 
beaten tracks. Any little anecdote concerning 
characters in Scottish history, any song which 
breathed the feeling of another age, any tradition 
or superstition still lingering in the minds of 
country people, — one and all, these remnants of 
earlier life in Scotland were added to the solid 
basis of history on which his books are built. 

Lord Macaulay illustrates the value of these 
scraps which Sir Walter collected. In Lincoln 
Cathedral, he says, there is a beautiful painted 
window which, strangely enough, was made by 
an apprentice out of pieces of glass thrown aside 



xiv Introduction 

by his master. In like fashion Scott has picked 
up many fragrants of ballads and local history 
which some writers would not deign to use, look- 
ing on them as too insignificant, but which in his 
hands go to form books of romance and history 
surpassing others of more elaborate workman- 
ship. 

It is told of Sir Walter Raleigh that one day 
he watched from his prison window a brawl in the 
street, which he afterward described, along with 
three other eye-witnesses, and no two out of the 
four reports were alike. And if it is difficult to 
get an undisputed description of recent events, it 
is much more so in the case of what has hap- 
pened several hundred years ago — our historians 
having often to choose between different ac- 
counts of the same incident. 

Sir Walter Scott is not a critical historian. 
His " Tales of a Grandfather " were written for a 
child, and he does not in them argue about dis- 
puted facts, or attempt to find a solution for mys- 
teries which have baffled the most ingenious in- 
vestigators — such as the Gowrie plot, or Queen 
Mary's share in the murder of Darnley. He pre- 
fers, in such cases, to tell the facts as they are 
acknowledged by every one, and not to bias his 
readers in their view, though in the case of 



Introduction xv 

Queen Mary he does not conceal his own disap- 
proval of Elizabeth's conduct toward her cousin. 

He is, on the whole, lenient and kindly in his 
judgments, and when he has to decide between 
conflicting opinions he is glad to accept, or at 
least consider, the better view of an action. His 
admiration for King Robert the Bruce has been 
challenged by critical historians, who point out 
that Bruce in his earlier days fought for his own 
gain, and they call him, in consequence, an ad- 
venturer. But Scott does not excuse his earlier 
conduct. He speaks of him as being guilty of a 
base crime when he fought with the English 
against Scotland, and all his praise is justly given 
to the Bruce who, throwing aside selfish motives, 
became the hero and liberator of his country. 

Sir Walter was a staunch Tory. His love for 
the " old order " of things, however, is not due 
to his Conservatism alone : it springs from his 
interest as a lawyer in records of earlier gener- 
ations, from his passion as an antiquarian for 
relics of the past, but most of all from his devo- 
tion as a Scotsman to the country which cradled 
his race. 

And, indeed, the history of Scotland might 
well fascinate a man of Sir Walter's romance- 
loving nature. Its long story of strife and blood- 



xvi Introduction 

shed is relieved by wonderful instances of love 
and loyalty and gallantry carried to the verge of 
foolhardiness ; on every page we are in the midst 
of stir and warfare — 

" The air is full of battle, 

It is full of the trumpets' sound, 
Of the tramp of dashing horses 

And the cries of the crowd around." 

The repeated claims of England to the overlord- 
ship of Scotland, and the fierce love of liberty 
which has always characterized the peoples of 
the northern kingdom, involved the two coun- 
tries from earliest times in an almost continuous 
state of warfare ; when this was in abeyance the 
spirit of enmity still lurked on the Borders, and 
Scots and English alike made deadly raids for the 
pleasure of plundering their hostile neighbors. 
Besides constant quarrels with the English, Scot- 
land suffered from disturbances at home. The 
early Jameses had, time after time, to combat the 
ambitious Douglases — " stalwart earls, broad- 
browed, black-bearded, pinnacled on power o'er- 
grown," who threatened to wrest the crown from 
the Stewart family. And if quiet prevailed 
around the King's person, there were still end- 
less broils among the unruly Borders or wild 



Introduction xvii 

Highland clans in the north. Boldness and fe- 
rocity were conspicuous in the men who battled 
for their very existence in those days ; but loy- 
alty, courage, and endurance came too from their 
harsh training, and true knights there were on 
both sides of the Border, who acted up to the 
maxim — 

" Thy sword is to keep thine honor white, 
And thine honor must keep thy good sword bright, 
And both must be free from stain." 

In their descendants we can trace the same 
sterling qualities which marked the noblest of 
the earlier Scots. Perhaps in none are the char- 
acteristics of courage and endurance, loyalty and 
patriotism, more clearly seen than in him who 
gave us these tales " far brought from out the 
storied past." 

M. G. E. 



Stories 
From Scottish History 

CHAPTER I 
FOR HOME AND COUNTRY 

Thou takest a pledge upon thee now 

To be loyal and true and brave, 
Ever to succor the weak and low, 
And to make the fierce oppressor bow, 

And the helpless to aid and save. 

—M. B. Smedley. 

EDWARD I of England reduced Scotland 
almost entirely to the condition of a con- 
quered country, although he had obtained 
possession of the kingdom, less by his bravery, 
than by cunningly taking advantage of the dis- 
putes and divisions that followed among the 
Scots themselves after the death of Alexander III. 
The English soldiers, who had been placed 
in garrison in the different castles of Scotland, 
thought themselves masters of the country, 
treated the Scots with great contempt, took 
from them by main force whatever they had a 
i 



2 Stories From Scottish History 

fancy to, and if the owners offered to resist, 
abused them, beat and wounded, and sometimes 
killed them ; for which acts of violence the Eng- 
lish officers did not check or punish their sol- 
diers. Scotland was, therefore, in great distress, 
and the inhabitants, exceedingly enraged, only 
wanted some leader to command them, to rise 
up in a body against the English or Southern 
men, as they called them, and recover the liberty 
and independence of their country, which had 
been destroyed by Edward the First. 

Such a leader arose in the person of William 
Wallace, whose name is still so often mentioned" 
in Scotland. It is a great pity we do not know 
exactly the history of this brave man ; for at the 
time when he lived, every one was so busy fight- 
ing, that there was no person to write down the 
history of what took place ; and afterward, when 
there was more leisure for composition, the truths 
that were collected were greatly mingled with 
falsehood. What I shall tell you of him, is gen- 
erally believed to be true. 

William Wallace was the son of a private 
gentleman, called Wallace of Ellerslie, in Ren- 
frewshire, near Paisley. He was very tall and 
handsome, and one of the strongest and bravest 
men that ever lived. He had a very fine counte- 



For Home and Country 3 

nance, with a quantity of fair hair, and was par- 
ticularly dexterous in the use of all weapons 
which were then employed in battle. Wallace, 
like all Scotsmen of high spirit, had looked with 
great indignation upon the usurpation of the 
crown by Edward, and upon the insolences 
which the English soldiers committed on his 
countrymen. It is said, that when he was very 
young, he went a-fishing for sport in the river of 
Irvine, near Ayr. He had caught a good many 
trout, which were carried by a boy, who attended 
him with a fishing-basket, as is usual with anglers. 
Two or three English soldiers, who belonged to 
the garrison of Ayr, came up to Wallace, and 
insisted, with their usual insolence, on taking the 
fish from the boy. W T allace was contented to 
allow them a part of the trout, but he refused to 
part with the whole basketful. The soldiers in- 
sisted, and from words came to blows. Wallace 
had no better weapon than the butt- end of his 
fishing-rod ; but he struck the foremost of the 
Englishmen so hard under the ear with it, that 
he killed him on the spot ; and getting posses- 
sion of the slain man's sword, he fought with so 
much fury that he put the others to flight, and 
brought home his fish safe and sound. The 
English governor of Ayr sought for him, to 



4 Stories From Scottish History 

punish him with death for this action ; but Wal- 
lace lay concealed among the hills and great 
woods till the matter was forgotten, and then 
appeared in another part of the country. He is 
said to have had other adventures of the same 
kind, in which he gallantly defended himself, 
sometimes when alone, sometimes with very few 
companions, against superior numbers of the 
English, until at last his name became generally 
known as a terror to them. 

But the action which occasioned his finally 
rising in arms, is believed to have happened in 
the town of Lanark. Wallace was at this time 
married to a lady of that place, and residing there 
with his wife. It chanced, as he walked in the 
market-place, dressed in a green garment, with a 
rich dagger by his side, that an Englishman 
came up and insulted him on account of his 
finery, saying, a Scotsman had no business to 
wear so gay a dress, or carry so handsome a 
weapon. It soon came to a quarrel, as on many 
former occasions ; and Wallace, having killed the 
Englishman, fled to his own house, which was 
speedily assaulted by all the English soldiers. 
While they were endeavoring to force their way 
in at the front of the house, Wallace escaped by 
a back-door, and got in safety to a rugged and 



For Home and Country 5 

rocky glen, near Lanark, called the Cartland 
crags, all covered with bushes and trees, and full 
of high precipices, where he knew he should be 
safe from the pursuit of the English soldiers. In 
the meantime, the governor of Lanark, whose 
name was Hazelrigg, burned Wallace's house, 
and put his wife and servants to death ; and by 
committing this cruelty increased to the highest 
pitch, as you may well believe, the hatred which 
the champion had always borne against the Eng- 
lish usurper. Hazelrigg also proclaimed Wallace 
an outlaw, and offered a reward to any one who 
should bring him to an English garrison, alive or 
dead. 

On the other hand, Wallace soon collected a 
body of men, outlawed like himself, or willing to 
become so, rather than any longer endure the 
oppression of the English. One of his earliest 
expeditions was directed against Hazelrigg, whom 
he killed, and thus avenged the death of his wife. 
He fought skirmishes with the soldiers who were 
sent against him, and often defeated them ; and 
in time became so well known and so formidable, 
that multitudes began to resort to his standard, 
until at length he was at the head of a consider- 
able army, with which he proposed to restore his 
country to independence. 



CHAPTER II 

A PATRIOT IN ARMS 

Not few nor slight his burdens are 

Who gives himself to stand, 
Steadfast and sleepless as a star 

Watching his fatherland. 

—M. B. Smedley. 

ABOUT this time is said to have taken 
place a memorable event, which the 
Scottish people called the Barns of Ayr. 
It is alleged that the English governor of Ayr 
had invited the greater part of the Scottish no- 
bility and gentry in the western parts, to meet 
him at some large buildings called the barns of 
Ayr, for the purpose of friendly conference upon 
the affairs of the nation. But the English earl 
entertained the treacherous purpose of putting 
the Scottish gentlemen to death. The English 
soldiers had halters with running nooses ready 
prepared, and hung upon the beams which sup- 
ported the roof ; and as the Scottish gentlemen 
were admitted by two and two at a time, the 
nooses were thrown over their heads, and they 
were pulled up by the neck, and thus hanged or 
strangled to death. Among those who were 
6 



A Patriot in Arms 7 

slain in this base and treacherous manner, was, it 
is said, Sir Reginald Crawford, Sheriff of the 
county of Ayr, and uncle to William Wallace. 

When Wallace heard of what had befallen, he 
was dreadfully enraged, and collecting his men in 
a wood near the town of Ayr, he resolved to be 
revenged on the authors of this great crime. 
The English in the meanwhile made much feast- 
ing, and when they had eaten and drunk plenti- 
fully, they lay down to sleep in the same large 
barns in which they had murdered the Scottish 
gentlemen. But Wallace, learning that they kept 
no guard or watch, not suspecting there were any 
enemies so near them, directed a woman who 
knew the place, to mark with chalk the doors of 
the lodgings where the Englishmen lay. Then 
he sent a party of men, who, with strong ropes, 
made all the doors so fast on the outside, that 
those within could not open them. On the out- 
side the Scots had prepared heaps of straw, to 
which they set fire, and the barns of Ayr, being 
themselves made of wood, were soon burning in 
a bright flame. Then the English were awak- 
ened, and endeavored to get out to save their 
lives. But the doors, as I told you, were secured 
on the outside, and bound fast with ropes ; and, 
besides, the blazing houses were surrounded by 



8 Stories From Scottish History 

the Scots, who forced those who got out to run 
back into the fire, or else put them to death on 
the spot ; and thus great numbers perished miser- 
ably. Many of the English were lodged in a 
convent, but they had no better fortune than the 
others ; for the prior of the convent caused all 
the friars to arm themselves, and, attacking the 
English guests, they put most of them to the 
sword. This was called the " Friar of Ayr's 
blessing." We cannot tell if this story of the 
Bams of Ayr be exactly true ; but it is probable 
there is some foundation for it, as it is universally 
believed in that country. 

Thus Wallace's party grew daily stronger and 
stronger, and many of the Scottish nobles joined 
with him. Among these were Sir William 
Douglas, the Lord of Douglas-dale, and the head 
of a great family often mentioned in Scottish 
history. There was also Sir John the Grahame, 
who became Wallace's bosom friend and greatest 
confidant. Many of these great noblemen, how- 
ever, deserted the cause of the country on the 
approach of John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, 
the English governor, at the head of a numerous 
and well-appointed army. They thought that 
Wallace would be unable to withstand the attack 
of so many disciplined soldiers, and hastened to 



A Patriot in Arms 9 

submit themselves to the English, for fear of 
losing their estates. Wallace, however, remained 
undismayed, and at the head of a considerable 
army. He had taken up his camp upon the 
northern side of the river Forth, near the town 
of Stirling. The river was there crossed by a 
long wooden bridge, about a mile above the spot 
where the present bridge is situated. 

The English general approached the banks of 
the river on the southern side. He sent two 
clergymen to offer a pardon to Wallace and his 
followers, on condition that they should lay down 
their arms. But such was not the purpose of 
the high-minded champion of Scotland. 

" Go back to Warenne," said Wallace, " and tell 
him we value not the pardon of the King of 
England. We are not here for the purpose of 
treating of peace, but of abiding battle, and re- 
storing freedom to our country. Let the English 
come on — we defy them to their very beards ! " 

The English, upon hearing this haughty an- 
swer, called loudly to be led to the attack. Their 
leader, Sir Richard Lundin, a Scottish knight, 
who had gone over to the enemy at Irvine, hesi- 
tated, for he was a skilful soldier, and he saw 
that, to approach the Scottish army, his troops 
must pass over the long, narrow wooden bridge ; 



lo Stories From Scottish History 

so that those who should get over first might be 
attacked by Wallace with all his forces, before 
those who remained behind could possibly come 
to their assistance. He therefore inclined to de- 
lay the battle. But Cressingham the treasurer, 
who was ignorant and presumptuous, insisted 
that it was their duty to fight, and put an end to 
the war at once ; and Lundin gave way to his 
opinion, although Cressingham, being a church- 
man, could not be so good a judge of what was 
fitting as he himself, an experienced officer. 

The English army began to cross the bridge, 
Cressingham leading the van, or foremost division 
of the army; for, in those military days, even 
clergymen wore armor and fought in battle. 
That took place which Lundin had foreseen. 
Wallace suffered a considerable part of the Eng- 
lish army to pass the bridge, without offering 
any opposition ; but when about one-half were 
over, and the bridge was crowded with those 
who were following, he charged those who had 
crossed with his whole strength, slew a very great 
number, and drove the rest into the river Forth, 
where the greater part were drowned. The re- 
mainder of the English army, who were left on 
the southern bank of the river, fled in great con- 
fusion, having first set fire to the wooden bridge, 



A Patriot in Arms ll 

that the Scots might not pursue them. Cressing- 
ham was killed in the very beginning of the bat- 
tle ; and the Scots detested him so much, that 
they flayed the skin from his dead body, and 
kept pieces of it, in memory of the revenge they 
had taken upon the English treasurer. Some 
say they made saddle-girths of this same skin ; a 
purpose for which I do not think it could be very 
fit. It must be owned to have been a dishonor- 
able thing of the Scots to insult thus the dead 
body of their enemy, and shows that they must 
have been then a ferocious and barbarous people. 
The remains of Surrey's great army fled out 
of Scotland after this defeat ; and the Scots, tak- 
ing arms on all sides, attacked the castles in which 
the English soldiers continued to shelter them- 
selves, and took most of them by force or strata- 
gem. Many wonderful stories are told of Wal- 
lace's exploits on these occasions ; some of which 
are no doubt true, while others are either in- 
vented, or very much exaggerated. It seems 
certain, however, that he defeated the English in 
several combats, chased them almost entirely out 
of Scotland, regained the towns and castles of 
which they had possessed themselves, and recov- 
ered for a time the complete freedom of the coun- 
try. He even marched into England, and laid 



12 Stories From Scottish History 

Cumberland and Northumberland waste, where 
the Scottish soldiers, in revenge for the mischief 
which the English had done in their country, 
committed great cruelties. Wallace did not ap- 
prove of their killing the people who were not in 
arms, and he endeavored to protect the clergy- 
men and others, who were not able to defend 
themselves. " Remain with me," he said to the 
priests of Hexham, a large town in Northumber- 
land, " for I cannot protect you from my soldiers 
when you are out of my presence." The troops 
who followed Wallace received no pay, because 
he had no money to give them ; and that was one 
great reason why he could not keep them under 
restraint, or prevent their doing much harm to 
the defenceless country people. He remained in 
England more than three weeks, and did a great 
deal of mischief to the country. 

Indeed, it appears, that, though Wallace disap- 
proved of slaying priests, women, and children, 
he partook of the ferocity of the times so much, 
as to put to death without quarter all whom he 
found in arms. In the north of Scotland, the 
English had placed a garrison in the strong cas- 
tle of Dunnottar, which, built on a large and 
precipitous rock, overhangs the raging sea. 
Though the place is almost inaccessible, Wallace 



A Patriot in Arms 13 

and his followers found their way into the castle, 
while the garrison in great terror fled into the 
church or chapel, which was built on the very- 
verge of the precipice. This did not save them, 
for Wallace caused the church to be set on fire. 
The terrified garrison, involved in the flames, ran 
some of them upon the points of the Scottish 
swords, while others threw themselves from the 
precipice into the sea, and swam along to the 
cliffs, where they hung like sea-fowl, screaming 
in vain for mercy and assistance. 

The followers of Wallace were frightened at 
this dreadful scene, and falling on their knees be- 
fore the priests who chanced to be in the army, 
they asked forgiveness for having committed so 
much slaughter, within the limits of a church 
dedicated to the service of God. But Wallace 
had so deep a sense of the injuries which the 
English had done to his country, that he only 
laughed at the contrition of his soldiers. " I will 
absolve you all, myself," he said. " Are you 
Scottish soldiers, and do you repent for a trifle 
like this, which is not half what the invaders de- 
served at our hands ? " So deep-seated was Wal- 
lace's feeling of national resentment, that it seems 
to have overcome, in such instances, the scruples 
of a temper which was naturally humane. 

I 

I 



CHAPTER III 
DEFEAT AND DEATH 

What gifts hath Fate for all his chivalry ? 
Even such as hearts heroic oftenest win ; 
Honor, a friend, anguish, untimely death. 

— Ernest Myers. 

EDWARD I was in Flanders when all these 
events took place. You may suppose he 
was very angry when he learned that 
Scotland, which he thought completely subdued, 
had risen into a great insurrection against him, 
defeated his armies, killed his treasurer, chased 
his soldiers out of their country, and invaded 
England with a great force. He came back from 
Flanders in a mighty rage, and determined not 
to leave that rebellious country until it was finally 
conquered ; for which purpose he assembled a 
very fine army, and marched into Scotland. 

In the meantime the Scots prepared to defend 
themselves, and chose Wallace to be Governor, or 
Protector of the kingdom, because they had no 
King at the time. He was now titled Sir William 
Wallace, Protector, or Governor, of the Scottish 
14 



Defeat and Death 15 

nation. But although Wallace, as we have seen, 
was the best soldier and bravest man in Scotland, 
and therefore the most fit to be placed in com- 
mand at this critical period, when the King of 
England was coming against them with such 
great forces, yet the nobles of Scotland envied 
him this important situation, because he was not 
a man born in high rank, or enjoying a large es- 
tate. So great was their jealousy of Sir William 
Wallace, that many of these great barons did not 
seem very willing to bring forward their forces, 
or fight against the English, because they would 
not have a man of inferior condition to be gen- 
eral. This was base and mean conduct, and it 
was attended with great disasters to Scotland. 
Yet, notwithstanding this unwillingness of the 
great nobility to support him, Wallace assembled 
a large army ; for the middling, but especially the 
lower, classes were very much attached to him. 
He marched boldly against the King of England, 
and met him near the town of Falkirk. Most of 
the Scottish army were on foot, because in those 
days only the nobility and great men of Scotland 
fought on horseback. The English King, on the 
contrary, had a very large body of the finest cav- 
alry in the world, Norman and English, all clothed 
in complete armor. He had also the celebrated 



16 Stories From Scottish History- 
archers of England, each of whom was said to 
carry twelve Scotsmen's lives under his girdle ; 
because every archer had twelve arrows stuck in 
his belt, and was expected to kill a man with 
every arrow. 

The Scots had some good archers from the 
Forest of Ettrick, who fought under command 
of Sir John Stewart of Bonkill ; but they were not 
nearly equal in number to the English. The 
greater part of the Scottish army were on foot, 
armed with long spears ; they were placed thick 
and close together, and laid all their spears so 
close, point over point, that it seemed as difficult 
to break through them, as through the wall of a 
strong castle. When the two armies were drawn 
up facing each other, Wallace said to his soldiers, 
" I have brought you to the ring, let me see how 
you can dance " ; meaning, I have brought you 
to the decisive field of battle, let me see how 
bravely you can fight. 

The English made the attack. King Edward, 
though he saw the close ranks, and undaunted 
appearance, of the Scottish infantry, resolved 
nevertheless to try whether he could not ride 
them down with his fine cavalry. He therefore 
gave his horsemen orders to advance. They 
charged accordingly, at full gallop. It must have 



Defeat and Death 17 

been a terrible thing to have seen these fine 
horses riding as hard as they could against the 
long lances, which were held out by the Scots to 
keep them back ; and a dreadful cry arose when 
they came against each other. 

The first line of cavalry was commanded by 
the Earl Marshal of England, whose progress was 
checked by a morass. The second line of English 
horse was commanded by Antony Beck, the 
Bishop of Durham, who, nevertheless, wore 
armor, and fought like a lay baron. He wheeled 
round the morass ; but when he saw the deep and 
firm order of the Scots, his heart failed, and he 
proposed to Sir Ralph Basset of Drayton, who 
commanded under him, to halt till Edward him- 
self brought up the reserve. " Go say your mass, 
bishop," answered Basset contemptuously, and 
advanced at full gallop with the second line. 
However, the Scots stood their ground with their 
long spears ; many of the foremost of the English 
horses were thrown down, and the riders were 
killed as they lay rolling, unable to rise, owing to 
the weight of their heavy armor. The Scottish 
horse did not come to the assistance of their in- 
fantry, but on the contrary, fled away from the 
battle. It is supposed that this was owing to the 
treachery or ill-will of the nobility, who were 



18 Stories From Scottish History 

jealous of Wallace. But it must be considered 
that the Scottish cavalry were few in number ; 
and that they had much worse arms, and weaker 
horses, than their enemies. The English cavalry 
attempted again and again to disperse the deep 
and solid ranks in which Wallace had stationed 
his foot soldiers. But they were repeatedly beaten 
off with loss, nor could they make their way 
through that wood of spears, as it is called by one 
of the English historians. King Edward then 
commanded his archers to advance ; and these 
approaching within arrow-shot of the Scottish 
ranks, poured on them such close and dreadful 
volleys of arrows, that it was impossible to sus- 
tain the discharge. It happened at the same 
time, that Sir John Stewart was killed by a fall 
from his horse ; and the archers of Ettrick For- 
est, whom he was bringing forward to oppose 
those of King Edward, were slain in great num- 
bers around him. Their bodies were afterward 
distinguished among the slain, as being the tall- 
est and handsomest men of the army. 

The Scottish spearmen being thus thrown into 
some degree of confusion, by the loss of those 
who were slain by the arrows of the English, the 
heavy cavalry of Edward again charged with 
more success than formerly, and broke through 



Defeat and Death 19 

the ranks, which were already disordered. Sir 
John Grahame, Wallace's great friend and com- 
panion, was slain, with many other brave soldiers ; 
and the Scots, having lost a very great number 
of men, were at length obliged to take to flight. 

This fatal battle was fought upon the 22d July, 
1298. 

After this fatal defeat of Falkirk, Sir William 
Wallace seems to have resigned his office of Gov- 
ernor of Scotland. 

The King of England possessed so much 
wealth, and so many means of raising soldiers, 
that he sent army after army into the poor op- 
pressed country of Scotland, and obliged all its 
nobles and great men, one after another, to sub- 
mit themselves once more to his yoke. Sir 
William Wallace, alone, or with a very small 
band of followers, refused either to acknowledge 
the usurper Edward, or to lay down his arms. 
He continued to maintain himself among the 
woods and mountains of his native country for 
no less than seven years after his defeat at Fal- 
kirk, and for more than one year after all the 
other defenders of Scottish liberty had laid down 
their arms. Many proclamations were sent out 
against him by the English, and a great reward 
was set upon his head ; for Edward did not think 



20 Stories From Scottish History- 
he could have any secure possession of his 
usurped kingdom of Scotland while Wallace 
lived. At length he was taken prisoner ; and, 
shame it is to say, a Scotsman, called Sir John 
Menteith, was the person by whom he was seized 
and delivered to the English. It is generally said 
that he was made prisoner at Robroyston, near 
Glasgow ; and the tradition of the country bears, 
that the signal made for rushing upon him and 
taking him at unawares, was, when one of his pre- 
tended friends, who betrayed him, should turn a 
loaf, which was placed upon the table, with its 
bottom or flat side uppermost. And in after 
times it was reckoned ill-breeding to turn a loaf 
in that manner, if there was a person named 
Menteith in company ; since it was as much as to 
remind him, that his namesake had betrayed Sir 
William Wallace, the champion of Scotland. 

Whether Sir John Menteith was actually the 
person by whom Wallace was betrayed, is not 
perfectly certain. He was, however, the indi- 
vidual by whom the patriot was made prisoner, 
and delivered up to the English, for which his 
name and his memory have been long loaded 
with disgrace. 

Edward having thus obtained possession of the 
person whom he considered as the greatest ob- 



Defeat and Death 21 

stacle to his complete conquest of Scotland, re- 
solved to make Wallace an example to all Scot- 
tish patriots who should in future venture to 
oppose his ambitious projects. He caused this 
gallant defender of his country to be brought to 
trial in Westminster Hall, before the English 
judges, and produced him there, crowned, in 
mockery, with a green garland, because they said 
he had been king of outlaws and robbers among 
the Scottish woods. Wallace was accused of 
having been a traitor to the English crown ; to 
which he answered, " I could not be a traitor to 
Edward, for I was never his subject." He was 
then charged with having taken and burned towns 
and castles, with having killed many men and 
done much violence. He replied, with the same 
calm resolution, " that it was true he had killed 
very many Englishmen, but it was because they 
had come to subdue and oppress his native coun- 
try of Scotland ; and far from repenting what he 
had done, he declared he was only sorry that he 
had not put to death many more of them." 

Notwithstanding that Wallace's defense was a 
good one, both in law and in common sense (for 
surely every one has not only a right to fight in 
defense of his native country, but is bound in 
duty to do so), the English judges condemned 



22 Stories From Scottish History 

him to be executed. So this brave patriot was 
dragged upon a sledge to the place of execution, 
where his head was struck off, and his body di- 
vided into four quarters, which according to the 
cruel custom of the time, were exposed upon 
spikes of iron on London Bridge, and were 
termed the limbs of a traitor. 

No doubt King Edward thought, that by ex- 
ercising this great severity toward so distinguished 
a patriot as Sir William Wallace, he should ter- 
rify all the Scots into obedience, and so be able 
in future to reign over their country without re- 
sistance. But though Edward was a powerful, a 
brave, and a wise king, and though he took the 
most cautious, as well as the most strict measures, 
to preserve the obedience of Scotland, yet his 
claim being founded in injustice and usurpation, 
was not permitted by Providence to be estab- 
lished in security or peace. Sir William Wal- 
lace, that immortal supporter of the independence 
of his country, was no sooner deprived of his life, 
in the cruel and unjust manner I have told you, 
than other patriots arose to assert the cause of 
Scottish liberty. 



CHAPTER IV 
A NEW CHAMPION 

Others march in freedom's van ; 
Canst not thou what others can ? 

— Eben. Elliott. 

JOHN BALIOL, who resigned the crown of 
Scotland into the hands of Edward as lord 
paramount, was very little respected in his 
own country. He had renounced the kingdom, 
and had been absent from it for fifteen years, 
during the greater part of which time he re- 
mained a prisoner in the hands of the King of 
England. 

It was therefore natural that such of the people 
of Scotland as were still determined to fight for 
the deliverance of their country from the English 
yoke, should look around for some other king, 
under whom they might unite themselves, to 
combat the power of England. The feeling was 
universal in Scotland, that they would not any 
longer endure the English government ; and 
therefore such great Scottish nobles as believed 
23 



24 Stories From Scottish History 

they had right to the crown, began to think of 
standing forward to claim it. 

Amongst these, the principal candidates (sup- 
posing John Baliol, by his renunciation and cap- 
tivity, to have lost all right to the kingdom) were 
two powerful noblemen. The first was Robert 
Bruce, Earl of Carrick, the other was John 
Comyn, or Cuming, of Badenoch, usually called 
the Red Comyn, to distinguish him from his 
kinsman, the Black Comyn, so named from his 
swarthy complexion. These two great and pow- 
erful barons had taken part with Sir William 
Wallace in the wars against England ; but, after 
the defeat of Falkirk, being fearful of losing their 
great estates, and considering the freedom of 
Scotland as beyond the possibility of being re- 
covered, both Bruce and Comyn had not only 
submitted themselves to Edward, and acknowl- 
edged his title as King of Scotland, but even 
borne arms, along with the English, against such 
of their countrymen as still continued to resist 
the usurper. But the feelings of Bruce concern- 
ing the baseness of this conduct, are said, by the 
old traditions of Scotland, to have been awakened 
by the following incident. In one of the numer- 
ous battles, or skirmishes, which took place at the 
time between the English and their adherents on 



A New Champion 25 

the one side, and the insurgent or patriotic Scots 
upon the other, Robert the Bruce was present, 
and assisted the English to gain the victory. 
After the battle was over, he sat down to dinner 
among his southern friends and allies without 
washing his hands, on which there still remained 
spots of the blood which he had shed during the 
action. The English lords, observing this, whis- 
pered to each other in mockery, " Look at that 
Scotsman, who is eating his own blood ! " Bruce 
heard what they said, and began to reflect, that 
the blood upon his hands might be indeed called 
his own, since it was that of his brave country- 
men, who were fighting for the independence of 
Scotland, while he was assisting its oppressors, 
who only laughed at and mocked him for his 
unnatural conduct. He was so much shocked 
and disgusted, that he arose from table, and, 
going into a neighboring chapel, shed many 
tears, and asking pardon of God for the great 
crime he had been guilty of, made a solemn vow 
that he would atone for it, by doing all in his 
power to deliver Scotland from the foreign yoke. 
Accordingly, he left, it is said, the English army, 
and never joined it again, but remained watching 
an opportunity for restoring the freedom of his 
country. 



26 Stories From Scottish History 

Now, this Robert the Bruce was a remarkably- 
brave and strong man : there was no man in 
Scotland that was thought a match for him ex- 
cept Sir William Wallace ; and now that Wallace 
was dead, Bruce was held the best warrior in 
Scotland. He was very wise and prudent, and 
an excellent general : that is, he knew how to 
conduct an army, and place them in order for 
battle, as well or better than any great man of 
his time. He was generous, too, and courteous 
by nature ; but he had some faults, which per- 
haps belonged as much to the fierce period in 
which he lived as to his own character. He was 
rash and passionate, and in his passion, he was 
sometimes relentless and cruel. 

Robert the Bruce had fixed his purpose, as I 
told you, to attempt once again to drive the Eng- 
lish out of Scotland, and he desired to prevail 
upon Sir John the Red Comyn, who was his 
rival in his pretensions to the throne, to join 
with him in expelling the foreign enemy by their 
common efforts. With this purpose, Bruce 
posted down from London to Dumfries, on the 
borders of Scotland, and requested an interview 
with John Comyn. They met in the church of 
the Minorites in that town, before the high altar. 
What passed between them is not known with 



A New Champion 27 

certainty ; but they quarreled, either concerning 
their mutual pretensions to the crown, or because 
Comyn refused to join Bruce in the proposed in- 
surrection against the English ; or, as many 
writers say, because Bruce charged Comyn with 
having betrayed to the English his purpose of 
rising up against King Edward. It is, however, 
certain, that these two haughty barons came to 
high and abusive words, until at length Bruce, 
who, I told you, was extremely passionate, forgot 
the sacred character of the place in which they 
stood, and struck Comyn a blow with his dagger. 
Having done this rash deed, he instantly ran out 
of the church and called for his horse. Two 
gentlemen of the country, Lindesay and Kirk- 
patrick, friends of Bruce, were then in attendance 
on him. Seeing him pale, bloody, and in much 
agitation, they eagerly inquired what was the 
matter. 

" I doubt," said Bruce, " that I have slain the 
Red Comyn." 

" Do you leave such a matter in doubt ? " said 
Kirkpatrick. " I will make sicker ! " — that is, I 
will make certain. 

Accordingly, he and his companion Lindesay 
rushed into the church, and made the matter 
certain with a vengeance, by dispatching the 



28 Stories From Scottish History 

wounded Comyn with their daggers. His uncle, 
Sir Robert Comyn, was slain at the same time. 

This slaughter of Comyn was a rash and cruel 
action ; and the historian of Bruce observes, that 
it was followed by the displeasure of heaven ; 
for no man ever went through more misfortunes 
than Robert Bruce, although he at length rose to 
great honor. 

After the deed was done, Bruce might be 
called desperate. He had committed an action 
which was sure to bring down upon him the venge- 
ance of all Comyn's relations, the resentment 
of the King of England, and the displeasure of 
the Church, on account of having slain his enemy 
within consecrated ground. He determined, 
therefore, to bid them all defiance at once, and to 
assert his pretensions to the throne of Scotland. 
He drew his own followers together, summoned 
to meet him such barons as still entertained 
hopes of the freedom of the country, and was 
crowned King at the Abbey of Scone, the usual 
place where the Kings of Scotland assumed their 
authority. 

Everything relating to the ceremony was 
hastily performed. A small circlet of gold was 
hurriedly made, to represent the ancient crown 
of Scotland, which Edward had carried off to 



A New Champion 29 

England. The Earl of Fife, whose duty it was 
to have placed the crown on the King's head, 
would not give his attendance. But the cere- 
monial was performed by his sister, Isabella, 
Countess of Buchan, though without the consent 
either of her brother or husband. A few barons, 
whose names ought to be dear to their country, 
joined Bruce in his attempt to vindicate the in- 
dependence of Scotland. 

Edward was dreadfully incensed when he heard 
that, after all the pains which he had taken, and 
all the blood which had been spilled, the Scots 
were making this new attempt to shake off his 
authority. Though now old, feeble, and sickly, 
he made a solemn vow, at a great festival, in 
presence of all his court, that he would take 
the most ample vengeance upon Robert the Bruce 
and his adherents ; after which he would never 
again draw his sword upon a Christian, but would 
only fight against the unbelieving Saracens for 
the recovery of the Holy Land. He marched 
against Bruce accordingly, at the head of a pow- 
erful army. 

The commencement of Bruce's undertaking 
was most disastrous. He was crowned on 29th 
March, 1 306. On the 1 8th May he was excom- 
municated by the Pope, on account of the mur- 



30 Stories From Scottish History 

der of Comyn within consecrated ground, a sen- 
tence which excluded him from all the benefits of 
religion, and authorized any one to kill him. 
Finally, on the 19th June, the new King was 
completely defeated near Methven by the Eng- 
lish Earl of Pembroke. Robert's horse was 
killed under him in the action, and he was for a 
moment a prisoner. But he had fallen into the 
power of a Scottish knight, who, though he 
served in the English army, did not choose to be 
the instrument of putting Bruce into their hands, 
and allowed him to escape. 

Bruce, with a few brave adherents, among 
whom was the young Lord of Douglas, who was 
afterward called the Good Lord James, retired 
into the Highland mountains, where they were 
chased from one place of refuge to another, often 
in great danger, and suffering many hardships. 
The Bruce's wife, now Queen of Scotland, with 
several other ladies, accompanied her husband 
and his few followers during their wanderings. 

Driven from one place in the Highlands to 
another, starved out of some districts, and forced 
from others by the opposition of the inhabitants, 
Bruce attempted to force his way into Lorn ; but 
he found enemies everywhere. The M'Dougals, 
a powerful family, then called Lords of Lorn, 



A New Champion 31 

were friendly to the English, and putting their 
men in arms, attacked Bruce and his wandering 
companions as soon as they attempted to enter 
their territory. The chief of these M'Dougals, 
called John of Lorn, hated Bruce on account of 
his having slain the Red Comyn, to whom this 
M'Dougal was nearly related. Bruce was again 
defeated by this chief, through force of numbers, 
at a place called Dairy ; but he showed, amidst 
his misfortunes, the greatness of his strength and 
courage. He directed his men to retreat through 
a narrow pass, and placing himself last of the 
party, he fought with and slew such of the enemy 
as attempted to press hard on them. Three fol- 
lowers of M'Dougal, a father and two sons, called 
M'Androsser, all very strong men, when they saw 
Bruce thus protecting the retreat of his followers, 
made a vow that they would either kill this re- 
doubted champion, or make him prisoner. The 
whole three rushed on the King at once. Bruce 
was on horseback, in the strait pass we have 
described, betwixt a precipitous rock and a deep 
lake. He struck the first man who came up and 
.seized his horse's rein, such a blow with his 
'sword, as cut off his hand and freed the bridle. 
The man bled to death. The other brother had 
grasped Bruce in the meantime by the leg, and 



32 Stories From Scottish History 

was attempting to throw him from horseback. 
The King, setting spurs to his horse, made the 
animal suddenly spring forward, so that the High- 
lander fell under the horse's feet ; and as he was 
endeavoring to rise again, Bruce cleft his head 
in two with his sword. The father, seeing his 
two sons thus slain, flew desperately at the King, 
and grasped him by the mantle so close to his 
body, that he could not have room to wield his 
long sword. But with the heavy pommel of that 
weapon, or, as others say, with an iron hammer 
which hung at his saddle-bow, the King struck 
this third assailant so dreadful a blow, that he 
dashed out his brains. Still, however, the High- 
lander kept his dying grasp on the King's mantle ; 
so that, to be free of the dead body, Bruce was 
obliged to undo the brooch, or clasp, by which 
it was fastened, and leave that, and the mantle 
itself, behind him. The brooch, which fell thus 
into the possession of M'Dougal of Lorn, is still 
preserved in that ancient family, as a memorial 
that the celebrated Robert Bruce once narrowly 
escaped falling into the hands of their ancestor. 



CHAPTER V 

THE DAWN OF HOPE 

Be bolde, Be bolde, and everywhere, Be bolde. 

— Spenser. 

THE King met with many encounters 
during his dangerous and dismal wan- 
derings ; yet, though almost always de- 
feated by the superior numbers of the English, 
and of such Scots as sided with them, he still 
kept up his own spirits and those of his followers. 
He was a better scholar than was usual in those 
days, when, except clergymen, few people re- 
ceived much education. King Robert had been 
well instructed in the learning of the times ; and 
we are told that he sometimes read aloud to his 
companions, to amuse them when they were 
crossing the great Highland lakes in such 
wretched leaky boats as they could find for 
that purpose. 

At last dangers increased so much around the 
brave King that he was obliged to separate him- 
self from his Queen and her ladies ; for the 
33 



34 Stories From Scottish History- 
winter was coming on, and it would be impos- 
sible for the women to endure this wandering 
sort of life when the frost and snow should set 
in. So Bruce left his Queen, with the Countess 
of Buchan and others, in the only castle which 
remained to him, which was called Kildrummie, 
and is situated near the head of the river Don in 
Aberdeenshire. The King also left his youngest 
brother, Nigel Bruce, to defend the castle against 
the English ; and he himself, with his second 
brother Edward, who was a very brave man, but 
still more rash and passionate than Robert him- 
self, went over to an island called Rachrin, on 
the coast of Ireland, where Bruce and the few 
men that followed his fortunes passed the winter 
of 1306. In the meantime, ill luck seemed to 
pursue all his friends in Scotland. The castle of 
Kildrummie was taken by the English, and Nigel 
Bruce, a beautiful and brave youth, was cruelly 
put to death by the victors. The ladies who had 
attended on Robert's Queen, as well as the Queen 
herself, and the Countess of Buchan, were thrown 
into strict confinement, and treated with the 
utmost severity. 

The Countess of Buchan, as I before told you, 
had given Edward great offense by being the 
person who placed the crown on the head of 



The Dawn of Hope 35 

Robert Bruce. She was imprisoned within the 
castle of Berwick, in a cage made on purpose. 
Some Scottish authors have pretended that this 
cage was hung over the walls with the poor 
countess, like a parrot's cage out at a window. 
But this is their own ignorant idea. The cage 
of the Lady Buchan was a strong wooden and 
iron piece of framework, placed within an apart- 
ment, and resembling one of those places in 
which wild beasts are confined. 

The news of the taking of Kildrummie, the 
captivity of his wife, and the execution of his 
brother, reached Bruce while he was residing in 
a miserable dwelling at Rachrin, and reduced 
him to the point of despair. 

It was about this time that an incident took 
place, which, although it rests only on tradition 
in families of the name of Bruce, is rendered 
probable by the manners of the times. After 
receiving the last unpleasing intelligence from 
Scotland, Bruce was lying one morning on his 
wretched bed, and deliberating with himself 
whether he had not better resign all thoughts 
of again attempting to make good his right to 
the Scottish crown, and, dismissing his followers, 
transport himself and his brothers to the Holy 
Land, and spend the rest of his life in fighting 



36 Stories From Scottish History 

against the Saracens ; by which he thought, per- 
haps, he might deserve the forgiveness of heaven 
for the great sin of stabbing Comyn in the church 
at Dumfries. But then, on the other hand, he 
thought it would be both criminal and cowardly 
to give up his attempts to restore freedom to 
Scotland, while there yet remained the least 
chance of his being successful in an undertaking, 
which, rightly considered, was much more his 
duty than to drive the infidels out of Palestine, 
though the superstition of his age might think 
otherwise. 

While he was divided between these reflections, 
and doubtful of what he should do, Bruce was 
looking upward to the roof of the cabin in which 
he lay ; and his eye was attracted by a spider, 
which, hanging at the end of a long thread of its 
own spinning, was endeavoring, as is the fashion 
of that creature, to swing itself from one beam in 
the roof to another, for the purpose of fixing the 
line on which it meant to stretch its web. The 
insect made the attempt again and again without 
success ; and at length Bruce counted that it had 
tried to carry its point six times, and been as 
often unable to do so. It came into his head, 
that he had himself fought just six battles against 
the English and their allies, and that the poor 



The Dawn of Hope 37 

persevering spider was exactly in the same situa- 
tion with himself, having made as many trials, 
and been as often disappointed in what it aimed 
at. " Now," thought Bruce, " as I have no means 
of knowing what is best to be done, I will be 
guided by the luck which shall attend this spider. 
If the insect shall make another effort to fix its 
thread, and shall be successful, I will venture a 
seventh time to try my fortune in Scotland ; but 
if the spider shall fail, I will go to the wars in 
Palestine, and never return to my native country 
more." 

While Bruce was forming this resolution, the 
spider made another exertion with all the force 
it could muster, and fairly succeeded in fastening 
its thread to the beam which it had so often in 
vain attempted to reach. Bruce, seeing the suc- 
cess of the spider, resolved to try his own fortune ; 
and as he had never before gained a victory, so 
he never afterward sustained any considerable or 
decisive check or defeat. I have often met with 
people of the name of Bruce, so completely per- 
suaded of the truth of this story, that they would 
not on any account kill a spider ; because it was 
that insect which had shown the example of per- 
severance, and given a signal of good luck to 
their great namesake. 



38 Stories From Scottish History- 
Having determined to renew his efforts to ob- 
tain possession of Scotland, notwithstanding the 
smallness of the means which he had for accom- 
plishing so great a purpose, the Bruce removed 
himself and his followers from Rachrin to the island 
of Arran, which lies in the mouth of the Clyde. 
The King landed, and inquired of the first 
woman he met, what armed men were in the 
island. She returned for answer, that there had 
arrived there very lately a body of armed strangers, 
who had defeated an English officer, the gov- 
ernor of the castle of Brathwick, had killed him 
and most of his men, and were now amusing 
themselves with hunting about the island. The 
King, having caused himself to be guided to the 
woods which these strangers most frequented, 
there blew his horn repeatedly. Now, the chief 
of the strangers who had taken the castle was 
James Douglas, whom we have already mentioned 
as one of the best of Bruce's friends, and he was 
accompanied by some of the bravest of that pa- 
triotic band. When he heard Robert Bruce's 
horn, he knew the sound well, and cried out, that 
yonder was the King, he knew by his manner of 
blowing. So he and his companions hastened to 
meet King Robert, and there was great joy on 
both sides ; while at the same time they could 



The Dawn of Hope 39 

not help weeping when they considered their own 
forlorn condition, and the great loss that had 
taken place among their friends since they had 
last parted. But they were stout-hearted men, 
and looked forward to freeing their country, in 
spite of all that had happened. 

The Bruce was now within sight of Scotland, 
and not distant from his own family possessions, 
where the people were most likely to be attached 
to him. He began immediately to form plans 
with Douglas, how they might best renew their 
enterprise against the English. The Douglas re- 
solved to go disguised to his own country, and 
raise his followers, in order to begin their enter- 
prise by taking revenge on an English nobleman 
called Lord Clifford, upon whom Edward had 
conferred his estates, and who had taken up his 
residence in the castle of Douglas. 

Bruce, on his part, opened a communication 
with the opposite coast of Carrick, by means of 
one of his followers called Cuthbert. This per- 
son had directions, that if he should find the 
countrymen in Carrick disposed to take up arms 
against the English, he was to make a fire on a 
headland, or lofty cape, called Turnberry, on the 
coast of Ayrshire, opposite to the island of Arran. 
The appearance of a fire on this place was to be 



40 Stories From Scottish History 

a signal for Bruce to put to sea with such men as 
he had, who were not more than three hundred 
in number, for the purpose of landing in Carrick 
and joining the insurgents. 

Bruce and his men watched eagerly for the 
signal, but for some time in vain. At length a 
fire on Turnberry-head became visible, and the 
King and his followers merrily betook themselves 
to their ships and galleys, concluding their Car- 
rick friends were all in arms, and ready to join 
with them. They landed on the beach at mid- 
night, where they found their spy Cuthbert alone 
in waiting for them, with very bad news. Lord 
Percy, he said, was in the country, with two or 
three hundred Englishmen, and had terrified the 
people so much, both by threats and actions, that 
none of them dared to think of rebelling against 
King Edward. 

" Traitor ! " said Bruce, " why, then, did you 
make the signal ? " 

" Alas," replied Cuthbert, " the fire was not 
made by me, but by some other person, for 
what purpose I know not ; but as soon as I saw 
it burning, I knew that you would come over, 
thinking it my signal, and therefore I came down 
to wait for you on the beach, to tell you how the 
matter stood." 



The Dawn of Hope 4! 

King Robert's first idea was to return to Arran 
after this disappointment ; but his brother Edward 
refused to go back. He was, as I have told you, 
a man daring even to rashness. " I will not leave 
my native land," he said, " now that I am so un- 
expectedly restored to it. I will give freedom to 
Scotland, or leave my carcass on the surface of 
the land which gave me birth." 

Bruce, also, after some hesitation, determined 
that since he had been thus brought to the main- 
land of Scotland, he would remain there, and take 
such adventure and fortune as heaven should 
send him. 



CHAPTER VI 
ON GUARD 

The chase is up ; but they shall know 
The stag at bay's a dangerous foe. 

—Scott. 

AT one time, a near relation of Bruce's, in 
whom he entirely confided, was induced 
by the bribes of the English to attempt 
to put him to death. This villain, with his two 
sons, watched the King one morning, till he saw 
him separated from all his men, excepting a little 
boy, w r ho waited on him as a page. The father 
had a sword in his hand, one of the sons had a 
sword and a spear, the other had a sword and a 
battle-axe. Now, when the King saw them so 
well armed, when there were no enemies near, he 
began to call to mind some hints which had been 
given to him, that these men intended to murder 
him. He had no weapons excepting his sword ; 
but his page had a bow and arrow. He took 
them both from the little boy, and bade him 
stand at a distance ; " for," said the King, " if I 
overcome these traitors, you shall have enough 
42 






On Guard 43 

of weapons ; but if I am slain by them, you may 
make your escape, and tell Douglas and my 
brother to revenge my death." The boy was 
very sorry, for he loved his master ; but he was 
obliged to do as he was bidden. 

In the meantime the traitors came forward 
upon Bruce, that they might assault him at once. 
The King called out to them, and commanded 
them to come no nearer, upon peril of their 
lives ; but the father answered with flattering 
words, pretending great kindness, and still con- 
tinuing to approach his person. Then the King 
again called to them to stand. " Traitors," said 
he, " ye have sold my life for English gold ; but 
you shall die if you come one foot nearer to me." 
With that he bent the page's bow ; and as the 
old conspirator continued to advance, he let the 
arrow fly at him. Bruce was an excellent archer ; 
he aimed his arrow so well, that it hit the father 
in the eye, and penetrated from that into his 
brain, so that he fell down dead. Then the two 
sons rushed on the King. One of them fetched 
a blow at him with an axe, but missed his stroke, 
and stumbled, so that the King with his great 
sword cut him down before he could recover his 
feet. The remaining traitor ran on Bruce with 
his spear ; but the King, with a sweep of his 



44 Stories From Scottish History- 
sword, cut the steel head off the villain's weapon, 
and then killed him before he had time to draw 
his sword. Then the little page came running, 
very joyful of his master's victory ; and the King 
wiped his bloody sword, and looking upon the 
dead bodies, said, " These might have been re- 
puted three gallant men, if they could have re- 
sisted the temptation of covetousness." 

In the present day, it is not necessary that 
generals, or great officers, should fight with their 
own hand, because it is only their duty to direct 
the movements and exertions of their followers. 
The artillery and the soldiers shoot at the enemy ; 
and men seldom mingle together, and fight hand 
to hand. But in ancient times, kings and great 
lords were obliged to put themselves into the 
very front of the battle, and fight like ordinary 
men, with the lance and other weapons. It was, 
therefore, of great consequence that they should 
be strong men, and dexterous in the use of their 
arms. Robert Bruce was so remarkably active 
and powerful that he came through a great many 
personal dangers, in which he must otherwise 
have been slain. I will tell you another of his 
adventures, which I think will amuse you. 

After the death of these three traitors, Robert 
the Bruce continued to keep himself concealed in 



On Guard 45 

his own earldom of Carrick, and in the neighbor- 
ing country of Galloway, until he should have 
matters ready for a general attack upon the 
English. He was obliged, in the meantime, to 
keep very few men with him, both for the sake 
of secrecy, and from the difficulty of finding 
provisions. Now, many of the people of Gallo- 
way were unfriendly to Bruce. They lived under 
the government of one M'Dougal, related to the 
Lord of Lorn, who, as I before told you, had de- 
feated Bruce at Dairy, and very nearly killed or 
made him prisoner. These Galloway men had 
heard that Bruce was in their country, having no 
more than sixty men with him ; so they resolved 
to attack him by surprise, and for this purpose 
they got two hundred men together, and brought 
with them two or three bloodhounds. These 
animals were trained to chase a man by the scent 
of his footsteps, as foxhounds chase a fox, or as 
beagles and harriers chase a hare. Although the 
dog does not see the person whose trace he is put 
upon, he follows him over every step he has taken. 
At that time these bloodhounds, or sleuthhounds, 
were used for the purpose of pursuing great crim- 
inals. The men of Galloway thought themselves 
secure, that if they missed taking Bruce, or kill- 
ing him at the first onset, and if he should escape 



46 Stories From Scottish History 

into the woods, they would find him out by means 
of these bloodhounds. 

The good King Robert Bruce, who was always 
watchful and vigilant, had received some infor- 
mation of the intention of this party to come 
upon him suddenly and by night. Accordingly, 
he quartered his little troop of sixty men on the 
side of a deep and swift-running river, that had 
very steep and rocky banks. There was but one 
ford by which this river could be crossed in that 
neighborhood, and that ford was deep and nar- 
row, so that two men could scarcely get through 
abreast ; the ground on which they were to land 
on the side where the King was, was steep, and 
the path which led upward from the water's edge 
to the top of the bank, extremely narrow and 
difficult. 

Bruce caused his men to lie down to take some 
sleep, at a place about half a mile distant from 
the river, while he himself, with two attendants, 
went down to watch the ford, through which 
the enemy must needs pass before they could 
come to the place where King Robert's men 
were lying. He stood for some time looking at 
the ford, and thinking how easily the enemy 
might be kept from passing there, provided it 
was bravely defended, when he heard at a dis- 



On Guard 47 

tance the baying of a hound, which was always 
coming nearer and nearer. This was the blood- 
hound which was tracing the King's steps to the 
ford where he had crossed, and the two hundred 
Galloway men were along with the animal, and 
guided by it. Bruce at first thought of going 
back to awaken his men ; but then he reflected 
that it might be only some shepherd's dog. 
I My men," he said, " are sorely tired ; I will 
not disturb their sleep for the yelping of a cur, 
till I know something more of the matter." So 
he stood and listened ; and by and by, as the 
cry of the hound came nearer, he began to hear 
a trampling of horses, and the voices of men, 
and the ringing and clattering of armor, and 
then he was sure the enemy were coming to 
the riverside. Then the King thought, " If I 
go back to give my men the alarm, these Gal- 
loway men will get through the ford without 
opposition ; and that would be a pity, since 
it is a place so advantageous to make defense 
against them." So he looked again at the steep 
path, and the deep river, and he thought that 
they gave him so much advantage, that he 
himself could defend the passage with his own 
hand, until his men came to assist him. His 
armor was so good and strong, that he had no 



48 Stones From Scottish History 

fear of arrows, and therefore the combat was not! 
so very unequal as it must have otherwise been. 
He therefore sent his followers to waken his 
men, and remained alone by the bank of the 
river. 

In the meanwhile, the noise and trampling of 
the horses increased ; and the moon being bright, 
Bruce beheld the glancing arms of about two 
hundred men, who came down to the opposite 
bank of the river. The men of Galloway, on 
their part, saw but one solitary figure, guarding 
the ford, and the foremost of them plunged into 
the river without minding him. But as they 
could only pass the ford one by one, the Bruce, 
who stood high above them on the bank where 
they were to land, killed the foremost man with 
a thrust of his long spear, and with a second 
thrust stabbed the horse, which fell down, 
kicking and plunging in his agonies, on the 
narrow path, and so prevented the others who 
were following from getting out of the river. 
Bruce had thus an opportunity of dealing his 
blows at pleasure among them, while they could 
not strike at him again. In the confusion, five 
or six of the enemy were slain, or, having been 
borne down the current, were drowned in the 
river. The rest were terrified, and drew back. 



On Guard 49 

But when the Galloway men looked again, 
and saw they were opposed by only one man, 
they themselves being so many, they cried out, 
that their honor would be lost forever if they 
did not force their way ; and encouraged each 
other with loud cries to plunge through, and 
assault him. But by this time the King's sol- 
diers came up to his assistance, and the Galloway 
men retreated, and gave up their enterprise. 



CHAPTER VII 
PURSUED 

He had an eye, and he could heed, 

Ever sing warily, warily ; 
He had a foot and he could speed 

Hunters watch so narrowly. 

— Scott, 

ABOUT the time when the Bruce was yet 
at the head of but few men, Sir Aymer 
de Valence, who was Earl of Pembroke, 
together with John of Lorn, came into Galloway, 
each of them being at the head of a large body 
of men. John of Lorn had a bloodhound with 
him, which it was said had formerly belonged to 
Robert Bruce himself; and having been fed by 
the King with his own hands, it became attached 
to him, and would follow his footsteps anywhere, 
as dogs are well known to trace their master's 
steps, whether they be bloodhounds or not. 
By means of this hound, John of Lorn thought 
he should certainly find out Bruce, and take 
revenge on him for the death of his relation 
Comyn. 

When these two armies advanced upon King 
5° 



Pursued 5 1 

Robert, he at first thought of fighting with the 
English earl ; but becoming aware that John 
of Lorn was moving round with another large 
body to attack him in the rear, he resolved to 
avoid fighting at that time, lest he should be 
oppressed by numbers. For this purpose, the 
King divided the men he had with him into 
three bodies, and commanded them to retreat 
by three different ways, thinking the enemy 
would not know which party to pursue. He 
also appointed a place at which they were to 
assemble again. But when John of Lorn came 
to the place where the army of Bruce had been 
thus divided, the bloodhound took his course 
after one of these divisions, neglecting the other 
two, and then John of Lorn knew that the King 
must be in that party ; so he also made no 
pursuit after the two other divisions of the 
Scots, but followed that which the dog pointed 
out, with all his men. 

The King again saw that he was followed by 
a large body, and being determined to escape 
from them, if possible, he made all the people 
who were with him disperse themselves differ- 
ent ways, thinking thus that the enemy must 
needs lose trace of him. He kept only one 
man along with him, and that was his own fos- 



52 Stories From Scottish History 

ter-brother, or the son of his nurse. When John 
of Lorn came to the place where Bruce's com- 
panions had dispersed themselves, the blood- 
hound, after it had snuffed up and down for a 
little, quitted the footsteps of all the other fugi- 
tives, and ran barking upon the track of two 
men out of the whole number. Then John ot 
Lorn knew that one of these two must needs be 
King Robert. Accordingly, he commanded five 
of his men that were speedy of foot to follow 
hard, and either make him prisoner, or slay him. 
The Highlanders started off accordingly, and 
ran so fast, that they gained sight of Robert 
and his foster-brother. The King asked his 
companion what help he could give him, and 
his foster-brother answered he was ready to do 
his best. So these two turned on the five men 
of John of Lorn, and killed them all. It is to be 
supposed they were better armed than the 
others were, as well as stronger and more 
desperate. 

By this time Bruce was very much fatigued, 
and yet they dared not sit down to take any 
rest ; for whenever they stopped for an instant, 
they heard the cry of the bloodhound behind 
them, and knew by that, that their enemies were 
coming up fast after them. At length, they came 



Pursued 53 

to a wood, through which ran a small river. Then 
Bruce said to his foster-brother, " Let us wade 
down this stream for a great way, instead of 
going straight across, and so this unhappy hound 
will lose the scent ; for if we were once clear of 
him, I should not be afraid of getting away from 
the pursuers." Accordingly the King and his 
attendant walked a great way down the stream, 
taking care to keep their feet in the water, which 
could not retain any scent where they had stepped. 
Then they came ashore on the further side from 
the enemy, and went deep into the wood before 
they stopped to rest themselves. In the mean- 
while, the hound led John of Lorn straight to 
the place where the King went into the water, 
but there the dog began to be puzzled, not 
knowing where to go next; for you are well 
aware that the running water could not retain 
the scent of a man's foot, like that which remains 
on turf. So, John of Lorn seeing the dog was 
at fault, as it is called, that is, had lost the track 
of what he pursued, gave up the chase, and re- 
turned to join with Aymer de Valence. 

But King Robert's adventures were not yet 
ended. His foster-brother and he had rested 
themselves in the wood, but they had got no 
food, and were become extremely hungry. They 



54 Stories From Scottish History 

walked on, however, in hopes of coming to some 
habitation. At length, in the midst of the forest, 
they met with three men who looked like thieves 
or ruffians. They were well armed, and one of 
them bore a sheep on his back, which it seemed 
as if they had just stolen. They saluted the 
King civilly; and he, replying to their saluta- 
tion, asked them where they were going. The 
men answered, they were seeking for Robert 
Bruce, for that they intended to join with him. 
The King answered, that if they would go with 
him, he would conduct them where they would 
find the Scottish King. Then the man who had 
spoken, changed countenance, and Bruce, who 
looked sharply at him, began to suspect that the 
ruffian guessed who he was, and that he and his 
companions had some design against his person, 
in order to gain the reward which had been 
offered for his life. 

So he said to them, " My good friends, as we 
are not well acquainted with each other, you 
must go before us, and we will follow near to 
you." 

" You have no occasion to suspect any harm 
from us," answered the man. 

" Neither do I suspect any," said Bruce ; " but 
this is the way in which I choose to travel." 



Pursued 55 

The men did as he commanded, and thus they 
traveled till they came together to a waste and 
ruinous cottage, where the men proposed to 
dress some part of the sheep, which their com- 
panion was carrying. The King was glad to 
hear of food; but he insisted that there should 
be two fires kindled, one for himself and his 
foster-brother at one end of the house, the other 
at the other end for their three companions. 
The men did as he desired. They broiled a 
quarter of mutton for themselves, and gave an- 
other to the King and his attendant. 

They were obliged to eat it without bread or 
salt; but as they were very hungry, they were 
glad to get food in any shape, and partook of it 
very heartily. 

Then so heavy a drowsiness fell on King 
Robert, that, for all the danger he was in, he 
could not resist an inclination to sleep. But first 
he desired his foster-brother to watch while he 
slept, for he had great suspicion of their new 
acquaintances. His foster-brother promised to 
keep awake, and did his best to keep his word. 
But the King had not been long asleep ere his 
foster-brother fell into a deep slumber also, for 
he had undergone as much fatigue as the King. 
When the three villains saw the King and his 



56 Stories From Scottish History 

attendant asleep, they made signs to each other, 
and rising up at once, drew their swords with the 
purpose to kill them both. But the King slept 
but lightly, and for as little noise as the traitors 
made in rising, he was awakened by it, and start- 
ing up, drew his sword, and went to meet them. 
At the same moment he pushed his foster-brother 
with his foot, to awaken him, and he got on his 
feet ; but ere he got his eyes cleared to see what 
was about to happen, one of the ruffians that 
were advancing to slay the King, killed him with 
a stroke of his sword. The King was now alone, 
one man against three, and in the greatest dan- 
ger of his life ; but his amazing strength, and the 
good armor which he wore, freed him once more 
from this great peril, and he killed the three men, 
one after another. He then left the cottage, 
very sorrowful for the death of his faithful foster- 
brother, and took his direction toward the place 
where he had appointed his men to assemble after 
their dispersion. It was now near night, and 
the place of meeting being a farmhouse, he 
went boldly into it, where he found the mistress, 
an old true-hearted Scotswoman, sitting alone. 
Upon seeing a stranger enter, she asked him who 
and what he was. The King answered that he was 
a traveler, who was journeying through the country. 



Pursued 57 

" All travelers," answered the good woman, 
" are welcome here, for the sake of one." 

" And who is that one," said the King, " for 
whose sake you make all travelers welcome?" 

" It is our rightful king, Robert the Bruce," 
answered the mistress, " who is the lawful lord of 
this country ; and although he is now pursued 
and hunted after with hounds and horns, I hope 
to live to see him King over all Scotland." 

" Since you love him so well, dame," said the 
King, " know that you see him before you. I 
am Robert the Bruce." 

" You ! " said the good woman, in great sur- 
prise; "and wherefore are you thus alone? — 
where are all your men ? " 

" I have none with me at this moment," an- 
swered Bruce, " and therefore I must travel 
alone." 

" But that shall not be," said the brave old 
dame, " for I have two stout sons, gallant and 
trusty men, who shall be your servants for life 
and death." 

So she brought her two sons, and though she 
well knew the dangers to which she exposed 
them, she made them swear fidelity to the King ; 
and they afterward became high officers in his 
service. 



58 Stories From Scottish History 

Now, the loyal old woman was getting every- 
thing ready for the King's supper, when suddenly 
there was a great trampling of horses heard round 
the house. They thought it must be some of 
the English, or John of Lorn's men, and the 
good wife called upon her sons to fight to the 
last for King Robert. But shortly after, they 
heard the voice of the Good Lord James of 
Douglas, and of Edward Bruce, the King's 
brother, who had come with a hundred and fifty 
horsemen to this farmhouse, according to the 
instructions that the King had left with them at 
parting. 

Robert the Bruce was right joyful to meet his 
brother, and his faithful friend Lord James ; and 
had no sooner found himself once more at the 
head of such a considerable body of followers, 
than, forgetting hunger and weariness, he began 
to inquire where the enemy who had pursued 
them so long had taken up their abode for the 
night ; " for," said he, " as they must suppose us 
totally scattered and fled, it is likely that they 
will think themselves quite secure, and disperse 
themselves into distant quarters, and keep care- 
less watch." 

" That is very true," answered James of Doug- 
las, " for I passed a village where there are two 



Pursued 59 

hundred of them quartered, who had placed no 
sentinels ; and if you have a mind to make haste, 
we may surprise them this very night, and do them 
more mischief than they have been able to do us 
during all this day's chase." 

Then there was nothing but mount and ride ; 
and as the Scots came by surprise on the body 
of English whom Douglas had mentioned, and 
rushed suddenly into the village where they were 
quartered, they easily dispersed and cut them to 
pieces. 

The consequence of these successes of King 
Robert was, that soldiers came to join him on 
all sides, and that he obtained several victories 
both over Sir Aymer de Valence, Lord Clifford, 
and other English commanders ; until at length 
the English were afraid to venture into the open 
country as formerly, unless when they could as- 
semble themselves in considerable bodies. They 
thought it safer to lie still in the towns and 
castles which they had garrisoned, and wait till 
the King of England should once more come to 
their assistance with a powerful army. 



CHAPTER VIII 
AT DAGGERS DRAWN 

Rude Border chiefs, of mighty name, 

And iron soul, who sternly tore 
The blossoms from the tree of fame 

And purpled deep their tints with gore. 

— J. Ley den. 

WHEN King Edward the First heard 
that Scotland was again in arms 
against him, he marched down to the 
Borders, with many threats of what he would do 
to avenge himself on Bruce and his party, whom 
he called rebels. But he was now old and feeble, 
and while he was making his preparations, he 
was taken very ill, and after lingering a long 
time, at length died on the 6th July, 1307, at a 
place in Cumberland called Burgh upon the 
Sands, in full sight of Scotland, and not three 
miles from its frontier. His hatred to that coun- 
try was so inveterate, that his thoughts of re- 
venge seemed to occupy his mind on his death- 
bed. He made his son promise never to make 
peace with Scotland until the nation was sub- 
dued, He gave also very singular directions 
60 



At Daggers Drawn 61 

concerning the disposal of his dead body. He 
ordered that it should be boiled in a cauldron till 
the flesh parted from the bones, and that then the 
bones should be wrapped up in a bull's hide, and 
carried at the head of the English army, as often 
as the Scots attempted to recover their freedom. 
He thought that he had inflicted such distresses 
on the Scots, and invaded and defeated them so 
often, that his very dead bones would terrify 
them. His son, Edward the Second, did not 
choose to execute this strange injunction, but 
caused his father to be buried in Westminster 
Abbey ; where his tomb is still to be seen, bear- 
ing for an inscription, here lies the hammer 
of the Scottish nation. And, indeed, it was 
true, that during his life he did them as much in- 
jury as a hammer does to the substances which it 
dashes to pieces. 

Edward the Second was neither so brave nor 
so wise as his father : on the contrary, he was a 
weak prince, fond of idle amusements, and 
worthless favorites. It was lucky for Scotland 
that such was his disposition. He marched a 
little way into Scotland with a large army which 
Edward the First had collected, but retired with- 
out fighting ; which gave great encouragement 
to Bruce's party. 



62 Stories From Scottish History 

Several of the Scottish nobility now took arms 
in different parts of the country, declared for 
King Robert, and fought against the English 
troops and garrisons. The most distinguished of 
these was the Good Lord James of Douglas, 
whom we have often mentioned before. Some 
of his most memorable exploits respected his own 
castle of Douglas, in which, being an important 
fortress, and strongly situated, the English had 
placed a large garrison. James of Douglas saw, 
with great displeasure, his castle filled with English 
soldiers, and stored with great quantities of corn, 
and cattle, and wine, and ale, and other supplies 
which they were preparing, to enable them to as- 
sist the English army with provisions. So he 
resolved, if possible, to be revenged upon the 
captain of the garrison and his soldiers. 

For this purpose, Douglas went in disguise to 
the house of one of his old servants, called 
Thomas Dickson, a strong, faithful, and bold 
man, and laid a scheme for taking the castle. A 
holiday was approaching, called Palm Sunday. 
Upon this day it was common, in the Roman 
Catholic times, that the people went to church in 
procession, with green boughs in their hands. 
Just as the English soldiers, who had marched 
down from the castle, got into church, one of 



At Daggers Drawn 63 

Lord James's followers raised the cry of Douglas, 
Douglas! which was the shout with which that 
family always began battle. Thomas Dickson, 
and some friends whom he had collected, in- 
stantly drew their swords, and killed the first 
Englishman whom they met. But as the signal 
had been given too soon, Dickson was borne 
down and slain. Douglas and his men presently 
after forced their way into the church. The 
English soldiers attempted to defend themselves ; 
but, being taken by surprise and unprepared, they 
were, for the greater part, killed or made pris- 
oners, and that so suddenly, and with so little 
noise, that their companions in the castle never 
heard of it. So that when Douglas and his men 
approached the castle gate, they found it open, 
and that part of the garrison which were left at 
home, busied cooking provisions for those that 
were at church. So Lord James got possession 
of his own castle without difficulty, and he and 
his men ate up all the good dinner which the 
English had made ready. But Douglas dared 
not stay there, lest the English should come in 
great force and besiege him ; and therefore he 
resolved to destroy all the provisions which the 
English had stored up in the castle, and to render 
the place unavailing to them. 



64 Stories From Scottish History 

It must be owned he executed this purpose in 
a very cruel and shocking manner, for he was 
much enraged at the death of Thomas Dickson. 
He caused all the barrels containing flour, meal, 
wheat, and malt, to be knocked in pieces, and 
their contents mixed on the floor ; then he staved 
the great hogsheads of wine and ale, and mixed 
the liquor with the stores ; and, last of all, he 
killed his prisoners, and flung the dead bodies 
among this disgusting heap, which his men called, 
in derision of the English, the Douglas Larder. 
Then he flung dead horses into the well to destroy 
it — after which he set fire to the castle ; and finally 
marched away, and took refuge with his follow- 
ers in the hills and forests. " He loved better," 
he said, " to hear the lark sing than the mouse 
squeak." That is, he loved better to keep in the 
open field with his men, than to shut himself and 
them up in castles. 

When Clifford, the English general, heard what 
had happened, he came to Douglas Castle with a 
great body of men, and rebuilt all the defenses 
which Lord James had destroyed, and cleared 
out the well, and put a good soldier, named 
Thirlwall, to command the garrison, and desired 
him to be on his guard, for he suspected that 
Lord James would again attack him. And, in- 



At Daggers Drawn 65 

deed, Douglas, who did not like to see the Eng- 
lish in his father's castle, was resolved to take the 
first opportunity of destroying this garrison, as he 
had done the former. For this purpose he again 
had recourse to stratagem. He laid a part of his 
followers in ambush in the wood, and sent four- 
teen men, disguised like countrymen, driving 
cattle past the gates of the castle. As soon as 
Thirl wall saw this, he swore that he would plun- 
der the Scots drovers of their cattle, and came 
out with a considerable part of his garrison, for 
that purpose. He had followed the cattle past 
the place where Douglas was lying concealed, 
when all of a sudden the Scotsmen threw off 
their carriers' cloaks, and appearing in armor, 
cried the cry of Douglas, and, turning back sud- 
denly, ran to meet the pursuers ; and before 
Thirlwall could make any defense, he heard the 
same war-cry behind him, and saw Douglas com- 
ing up with those Scots who had been lying in 
ambush. Thirlwall himself was killed, fighting 
bravely in the middle of his enemies, and only a 
very few of his men found their way back to the 
castle. 

When Lord James had thus slain two English 
commanders or governors of his castle, and was 
known to have made a vow that he would be re- 



66 Stories From Scottish History 

venged on any one who should dare to take pos- 
session of his father's house, men became afraid ; 
and the fortress was called, both in England and 
Scotland, the Perilous Castle of Douglas, because 
it proved so dangerous to any Englishman who 
was stationed there. Now, in those warlike 
times, the ladies would not marry any man who 
was not very brave and valiant, so that a coward, 
let him be ever so rich or high-born, was held in 
universal contempt. And thus it became the 
fashion for the ladies to demand proofs of the 
courage of their lovers, and for those knights who 
desired to please the ladies, to try some extra- 
ordinary deed of arms, to show their bravery and 
deserve their favor. 

At the time we speak of, there was a young 
lady in England, whom many knights and noble- 
men asked in marriage, because she was extremely 
wealthy, and very beautiful. Once upon a holi- 
day she made a great feast, to which she asked 
all her lovers, and numerous other gallant knights ; 
and after the feast she arose, and told them that 
she was much obliged to them for their good 
opinion of her, but as she desired to have for her 
husband a man of the most incontestable bravery, 
she had formed her resolution not to marry any 
one, save one who should show his courage by 



At Daggers Drawn 67 

defending the Perilous Castle of Douglas against 
the Scots for a year and a day. Now this made 
some silence among the gentlemen present ; for 
although the lady was rich and beautiful, yet 
there was great danger in placing themselves 
within the reach of the Good Lord James of 
Douglas. At last a brave young knight started 
up and said, that for the love of that lady he was 
willing to keep the Perilous Castle for a year and 
a day, if the King pleased to give him leave. 
The King of England was satisfied, and well 
pleased to get a brave man to hold a place so 
dangerous. Sir John Wilton was the name of 
this gallant knight. He kept the castle very 
safely for some time ; but Douglas at last, by a 
stratagem, induced him to venture out with a 
part of the garrison, and then set upon them and 
slew them. Wilton himself was killed, and a 
letter from the lady was found in his pocket. 
Douglas was sorry for his unhappy end, and did 
not put to death any of the prisoners as he had 
formerly done, but dismissed them in safety to 
the next English garrison. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE TAKING OF THE CASTLES 

I. EDINBURGH 

It is so hye in syght 

Who will it scale, he shall not find it light. 

— J. Hardy ng. 

OTHER great lords, besides Douglas, were 
now exerting themselves to attack and 
destroy the English. Among those 
was Sir Thomas Randolph, whose mother was a 
sister of King Robert. He had joined with the 
Bruce when he first took up arms. There was a 
sort of rivalry between Douglas and him, which 
should do the boldest and most hazardous ac- 
tions. I will just mention one or two circum- 
stances, which will show you what awful dangers 
were to be encountered by these brave men, in 
order to free Scotland from its enemies and in- 
vaders. 

While Robert Bruce was gradually getting pos- 
session of the country, and driving out the Eng- 
lish, Edinburgh, the principal town of Scotland, 
68 



The Taking of the Castles 69 

remained, with its strong castle, in possession of 
the invaders. Sir Thomas Randolph was ex- 
tremely desirous to gain this important place ; 
but the castle is situated on a very steep and lofty 
rock, so that it is difficult or almost impossible 
even to get up to the foot of the walls, much more 
to climb over them. 

So while Randolph was considering what was 
to be done, there came to him a Scottish gentle 
man named Francis, who had joined Bruce's 
standard, and asked to speak with him in private. 
He then told Randolph, that in his youth he had 
lived in the castle of Edinburgh, and that his 
father had then been keeper of the fortress. It 
happened at that time that Francis was much in 
love with a lady, who lived in a part of the town 
beneath the castle, which is called the Grassmar- 
ket. Now, as he could not get out of the castle 
by day to see his mistress, he had practiced a way 
of clambering by night down the castle rock on 
the south side, and returning at his pleasure; 
when he came to the foot of the wall, he made 
use of a ladder to get over it, as it was not very 
high at that point, those who built it having 
trusted to the steepness of the crag ; and, for the 
same reason, no watch was placed there. Fran- 
cis had gone and come so frequently in this 



70 Stories From Scottish History 

dangerous manner, that, though it was now long 
ago, he told Randolph he knew the road so well, 
that he would undertake to guide a small party 
of men by night to the bottom of the wall ; and 
as they might bring ladders with them, there 
would be no difficulty in scaling it. The great 
risk was, that of their being discovered by the 
watchmen while in the act of ascending the cliff, 
in which case every man of them must have 
perished. 

Nevertheless, Randolph did not hesitate to 
attempt the adventure. He took with him only 
thirty men (you may be sure they were chosen 
for activity and courage), and came one dark 
night to the foot of the rock, which they began 
to ascend under the guidance of Francis, who 
went before them, upon his hands and feet, up 
one cliff, down another, and round another, where 
there was scarce room to support themselves. 
All the while, these thirty men were obliged to 
follow in a line, one after the other, by a path 
that was fitter for a cat than a man. The noise 
of a stone falling, or a word spoken from one to 
another, would have alarmed the watchmen. 
They were obliged, therefore, to move with the 
greatest precaution. When they were far up the 
crag, and near the foundation of the wall, they 



The Taking of the Castles 71 

heard the guards going their rounds, to see that 
all was safe in and about the castle. Randolph 
and his party had nothing for it but to lie close 
and quiet, each man under the crag as he hap- 
pened to be placed, and trust that the guards 
would pass by without noticing them. And 
while they were waiting in breathless alarm, they 
got a new cause of fright. One of the soldiers 
of the castle, willing to startle his comrades, sud- 
denly threw a stone from the wall, and cried out, 
" Aha, I see you well ! " The stone came thun- 
dering down over the heads of Randolph and his 
men, who naturally thought themselves discov- 
ered. If they had stirred, or made the slightest 
noise, they would have been entirely destroyed ; 
for the soldiers above might have killed every 
man of them, merely by rolling down stones. 
But being courageous and chosen men, they re- 
mained quiet, and the English soldiers, who 
thought their comrade was merely playing them 
a trick (as, indeed, he had no other meaning in 
what he did and said), passed on, without farther 
examination. 

Then Randolph and his men got up, and came 
in haste to the foot of the wall, which was not 
above twice a man's height in that place. They 
planted the ladders they had brought, and Francis 



72 Stories From Scottish History 

mounted first to show them the way ; Sir Andrew 
Gray, a brave knight, followed him, and Randolph 
himself was the third man who got over. Then 
the rest followed. When once they were within 
the walls, there was not so much to do, for the 
garrison were asleep and unarmed, excepting the 
watch, who were speedily destroyed. Thus was 
Edinburgh Castle taken in March, 131 2-1 3. 



II. LINLITHGOW 

When thou nearest the battle din, 
Rush forward, and the passage win, 
Secure the drawbridge — storm the port, 
And man and guard the castle-court. 

— Scott. 

It was not, however, only by the exertions of 
great and powerful barons, like Randolph and 
Douglas, that the freedom of Scotland was to be 
accomplished. The stout yeomanry, and the 
bold peasantry of the land, who were as desirous 
to enjoy their cottages in honorable independ- 
ence, as the nobles were to reclaim their castles 
and estates from the English, contributed their 
full share in the efforts which were made to de- 
liver their country from the invaders. I will 
give you one instance among many. 

There was a strong castle near Linlithgow, 



The Taking of the Castles 73 

where an English governor, with a powerful gar- 
rison, lay in readiness to support the English 
cause, and used to exercise much severity upon 
the Scots in the neighborhood. There lived at 
no great distance from this stronghold, a farmer, 
a bold and stout man, whose name was Binnock, 
or as it is now pronounced, Binning. This man 
saw with great joy the progress which the Scots 
were making in recovering their country from 
the English, and resolved to do something to 
help his countrymen, by getting possession, 
if it were possible, of the castle of Linlithgow. 
But the place was very strong, situated by the side 
of a lake, defended not only by gates, which were 
usually kept shut against strangers, but also a 
portcullis. A portcullis is a sort of door formed 
of cross-bars of iron, like a grate. It has not 
hinges like a door, but is drawn up by pulleys, 
and let down when any danger approaches. 
It may be let go in a moment, and then falls 
down into the doorway ; and as it has great 
iron spikes at the bottom, it crushes all that it 
lights upon ; thus in case of a sudden alarm, a 
portcullis may be let suddenly fall to defend the 
entrance, when it is not possible to shut the 
gates. Binnock knew this very well, but he 
resolved to be provided against this risk also 



74 Stories From Scottish History 

when he attempted to surprise the castle. So 
he spoke with some bold courageous countrymen, 
and engaged them in his enterprise, which he 
accomplished thus. 

Binnock had been accustomed to supply the 
garrison of Linlithgow with hay, and he had 
been ordered by the English governor to fur- 
nish some cart-loads, of which they were in 
want. He promised to bring it accordingly ; 
but the night before he drove the hay to the 
castle, he stationed a party of his friends, as well 
armed as possible, near the entrance, where they 
could not be seen by the garrison, and gave 
them directions that they should come to his 
assistance as soon as they should hear his signal, 
which was to be, — " Call all, call all ! " Then he 
loaded a great wagon with hay. But in the 
wagon he placed eight strong men, well armed, 
lying flat on their breasts, and covered over with 
hay, so that they could not be seen. He himself 
walked carelessly beside the wagon ; and he 
chose the stoutest and bravest of his servants to 
be the driver, who carried at his belt a strong axe 
or hatchet. In this way Binnock approached 
the castle early in the morning ; and the watch- 
man, who only saw two men, Binnock being one 
of them, with a cart of hay, which they ex- 



The Taking of the Castles 75 

pected, opened the gates, and raised up the port- 
cullis, to permit them to enter the castle. But 
as soon as the cart had got under the gateway, 
Binnock made a sign to his servant, who with 
his axe suddenly cut asunder the saom, that is 
the yoke which fastens the horses to the cart, 
and the horses rinding themselves free, naturally 
started forward, the cart remaining behind under 
the arch of the gate. At the same moment, 
Binnock cried as loud as he could, " Call all, call 
all ! " and drawing the sword, which he had 
under his country habit, he killed the porter. 
The armed men then jumped up from under the 
hay where they lay concealed, and rushed on the 
English guard. The Englishmen tried to shut 
the gates, but they could not, because the cart of 
hay remained in the gateway, and prevented the 
folding-doors from being closed. The portcullis 
was also let fall, but the grating was caught on 
the cart, and so could not drop to the ground. 
The men who were in ambush near the gate, 
hearing the signal agreed on, ran to assist those 
who had leaped out from among the hay ; the 
castle was taken, and all the Englishmen killed 
or made prisoners. King Robert rewarded Bin- 
nock by bestowing on him an estate, which his 
posterity long afterward enjoyed. 



76 Stories From Scottish History 

III. ROXBURGH 
And many a fortress, town, and tower was won, 
And Fame still sounded forth fresh deeds of glory done. 1 

—Scott. 

Roxburgh was then a very large castle, situ- 
ated near where two fine rivers, the Tweed and 
the Teviot, join each other. Being within five 
or six miles of England, the English were ex- 
tremely desirous of retaining it, and the Scots 
equally eager to obtain possession of it. I will 
tell you how it was taken. 

It was upon the night of what is called Shrove- 
tide, a holiday to which Roman Catholics paid 
great respect, and solemnized with much gaiety 
and feasting. Most of the garrison of Roxburgh 
castle were drinking and carousing, but still they 
had set watches on the battlements of the castle, 
in case of any sudden attack ; for, as the Scots 
had succeeded in so many enterprises of the kind, 
and as Douglas was known to be in the neigh- 
borhood, they conceived themselves obliged to 
keep a very strict guard. 

An Englishwoman, the wife of one of the 
officers, was sitting on the battlements with her 
child in her arms ; and looking out on the fields 
below, she saw some black objects, like a herd of 
cattle, straggling near the foot of the wall, and 



The Taking of the Castles 77 

approaching the ditch or moat of the castle. 
She pointed them out to the sentinel, and asked 
him what they were. — " Pooh, pooh," said the 
soldier, " it is farmer such a one's cattle " (naming 
a man whose farm lay near to the castle) ; " the 
good man is keeping a jolly Shrovetide, and has 
forgot to shut up his bullocks in their yard ; but 
if the Douglas come across them before morn- 
ing, he is likely to rue his negligence." Now 
these creeping objects which they saw from the 
castle wall were no real cattle, but Douglas him- 
self and his soldiers, who had put black cloaks 
above their armor, and were creeping about on 
hands and feet, in order, without being observed, 
to get so near to the foot of the castle wall as to 
be able to set ladders to it. The poor woman, 
who knew nothing of this, sat quietly on the 
wall, and began to sing to her child. You must 
know that the name of Douglas had become so 
terrible to the English, that the women used to 
frighten their children with it, and say to them 
when they behaved ill, that they " would make 
the Black Douglas take them." And this sol- 
dier's wife was singing to her child, 

" Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye, 
Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye, 
The black Douglas shall not get ye." 



78 Stories From Scottish History 

"You are not so sure of that," said a voice 
close beside her. She felt at the same time a 
heavy hand, with an iron glove, laid on her 
shoulder, and when she looked round, she saw 
the very Black Douglas she had been singing 
about, standing close beside her, a tall, swarthy, 
strong man. At the same time, another Scots- 
man was seen ascending the walls, near to the 
sentinel. The soldier gave the alarm, and rushed 
at the Scotsman, whose name was Simon Lede- 
house, with his lance; but Simon parried the 
stroke, and closing with the sentinel, struck him 
a deadly blow with his dagger. The rest of the 
Scots followed up to assist Douglas and Lede- 
house, and the castle was taken. Many of, the 
soldiers were put to death, but Douglas protected 
the woman and the child. I dare say she made 
no more songs about the Black Douglas. 



CHAPTER X 

BEFORE THE BATTLE 

They come ! they come ! the knell is rung 

Of us or them ; 
Wide o'er their march the pomp is flung 

Of gold and gem. 

— Eben. Elliott. 

THE English now possessed scarcely any- 
place of importance in Scotland, ex- 
cepting Stirling, which was besieged, 
or rather blockaded, by Edward Bruce, the King's 
brother. To blockade a town or castle, is to 
quarter an army around it, so as to prevent those 
within from getting provisions. This was done 
by the Scots before Stirling, till Sir Philip Mow- 
bray, who commanded the castle, finding that 
he was likely to be reduced to extremity for 
want of provisions, made an agreement with 
Edward Bruce that he would surrender the place, 
provided he were not relieved by the King of 
England before midsummer. Sir Edward agreed 
to these terms, and allowed Mowbray to go to 
London, to tell King Edward of the conditions 
he had made. But when King Robert heard 
79 



80 Stories From Scottish History 

what his brother had done, he thought it was too 
great a risk, since it obliged him to venture a 
battle with the full strength of Edward II, who 
had under him England, Ireland, Wales, and a 
great part of France, and could within the time 
allowed assemble a much more powerful army 
than the Scots could, even if all Scotland were 
fully under the King's authority. Sir Edward 
answered his brother with his naturally audacious 
spirit, " Let Edward bring every man he has, we 
will fight them, were they more." The King 
admired his courage, though it was mingled with 
rashness. — " Since it is so, brother," he said, " we 
will manfully abide battle, and assemble all who 
love us, and value the freedom of Scotland, to 
come with all the men they have, and help us to 
oppose King Edward, should he come with his 
army to rescue Stirling." 

King Edward II, as we have already said, was 
not a wise and brave man like his father, but a 
foolish prince, who was influenced by unworthy 
favorites, and thought more of pleasure than of 
governing his kingdom. His father Edward I 
would have entered Scotland at the head of a 
large army, before he had left Bruce time to re- 
conquer so much of the country. But we have 
seen, that, very fortunately for the Scots, that 



Before the Battle 81 

wise and skilful, though ambitious King, died 
when he was on the point of marching into Scot- 
land. His son Edward had afterward neglected 
the Scottish war, and thus lost the opportunity 
of defeating Bruce, when his force was small. 
But now when Sir Philip Mowbray, the governor 
of Stirling, came to London, to tell the King that 
Stirling, the last Scottish town of importance 
which remained in possession of the English, 
was to be surrendered if it were not relieved by 
force of arms before midsummer, then all the 
English nobles called out, it would be a sin and 
shame to permit the fair conquest which Ed- 
ward I had made, to be forfeited to the Scots for 
want of fighting. It was, therefore, resolved, 
that the King should go himself to Scotland, 
with as great forces as he could possibly muster. 
King Edward II, therefore, assembled one 
of the greatest armies which a King of Eng- 
land had ever commanded. There were troops 
brought from all his dominions. Many brave 
soldiers from the provinces which the King of 
England possessed in France, — many Irish, many 
Welsh, — and all the great English nobles and 
barons, with their followers, were assembled in 
one great army. The number was not less than 
one hundred thousand men. 



82 Stories From Scottish History 

King Robert the Brace summoned all his 
nobles and barons to join him, when he heard of 
the great preparation which the King of Eng- ] 
land was making. They were not so numerous 
as the English by many thousand men. In fact, 
his whole army did not very much exceed thirty 
thousand, and they were much worse armed than 
the wealthy Englishmen; but then, Robert, who 
was at their head, was one of the most expert 
generals of the time ; and the officers he had un- 
der him, were his brother Edward, his nephew 
Randolph, his faithful follower the Douglas, and 
other brave and experienced leaders, who com- 
manded the same men that had been accustomed 
to fight and gain victories under every disadvan- 
tage of situation and numbers. 

The King, on his part, studied how he might 
supply, by address and stratagem, what he wanted 
in numbers and strength. He knew the superior- 
ity of the English, both in their heavy-armed 
cavalry, which were much better mounted and 
armed than that of the Scots, and in their arch- 
ers, who were better trained than any others in 
the world. Both these advantages he resolved to 
provide against. With this purpose, he led his 
army down into a plain near Stirling, called the 
Park, near which, and beneath it, the English 



Before the Battle 83 

army must needs pass through a boggy country 
broken with water-courses, while the Scots occu- 
pied hard dry ground. He then caused all the 
ground upon the front of his line of battle, where 
cavalry were likely to act, to be dug full of holes, 
about as deep as a man's knee. They were filled 
with light brushwood, and the turf was laid on 
the top, so that it appeared a plain field, while in 
reality it was as full of these pits as a honeycomb 
is of holes. He also, it is said, caused steel 
spikes, called calthrops, to be scattered up and 
down in the plain, where the English cavalry 
were most likely to advance, trusting in that 
manner to lame and destroy their horses. 

When the Scottish army was drawn up, the 
line stretched north and south. On the south, it 
was terminated by the banks of the brook called 
Bannockburn, which are so rocky, that no troops 
could attack them there. On the left, the Scot- 
tish line extended near to the town of Stirling. 
Bruce reviewed his troops very carefully ; all the 
useless servants, drivers of carts, and such like 
of whom there were very many, he ordered to 
go behind a height, afterward, in memory of the 
event, called the Gillies' hill, that is, the Servants' 
hill. He then spoke to the soldiers, and ex- 
pressed his determination to gain the victory, or 



84 Stories From Scottish History 

to lose his life on the field of battle. He desired 
that all those who did not propose to fight to the 
last should leave the field before the battle began, 
and that none should remain except those who 
were determined to take the issue of victory or 
death, as God should send it. 

When the main body of his army was thus 
placed in order, the King posted Randolph, with 
a body of horse, near to the church of St. Nin- 
ian's, commanding him to use the utmost dili- 
gence to prevent any succors from being thrown 
into Stirling Castle. He then dispatched James 
of Douglas, and Sir Robert Keith, the Marshal 
of the Scottish army, in order that they might 
survey, as nearly as they could, the English force, 
which was now approaching from Falkirk. They 
returned with information, that the approach of 
that vast host was one of the most beautiful and 
terrible sights which could be seen, — that the 
whole country seemed covered with men-at-arms 
on horse and foot, — that the number of stand- 
ards, banners, and pennons made so gallant a 
show, that the bravest and most numerous host 
in Christendom might be alarmed to see King 
Edward moving against them. 

It was upon the 23d of June (1314) the King 
of Scotland heard the news, that the English 



Before the Battle 85 

were approaching Stirling. He drew out his 
army, therefore, in the order which he had before 
resolved on. After a short time, Bruce, who was 
looking out anxiously for the enemy, saw a body 
of English cavalry trying to get into Stirling 
from the eastward. This was the Lord Clifford, 
who, with a chosen body of eight hundred horse, 
had been detached to relieve the castle. 

" See, Randolph," said the King to his nephew, 
" there is a rose fallen from your chaplet." By 
this he meant, that Randolph had lost some 
honor, by suffering the enemy to pass where he 
had been stationed to hinder them. Randolph 
made no reply, but rushed against Clifford with 
little more than half his number. The Scots 
were on foot. The English turned to charge 
them with their lances, and Randolph drew up 
his men in close order to receive the onset. He 
seemed to be in so much danger, that Douglas 
asked leave to go and assist him. The King re- 
fused him permission. 

" Let Randolph," he said, " redeem his own 
fault ; I cannot break the order of battle for his 
sake." Still the danger appeared greater, and 
the English horse seemed entirely to encompass 
the small handful of Scottish infantry. " So 
please you," said Douglas to the King, " my 



86 Stories From Scottish History 

heart will not suffer me to stand idle and see 
Randolph perish — I must go to his assistance." 
He rode off accordingly ; but long before they 
had reached the place of combat, they saw the Eng- 
lish horses galloping off, many with empty saddles. 

" Halt ! " said Douglas to his men, " Randolph 
has gained the day ; since we were not soon 
enough to help him in the battle, do not let us 
lessen his glory by approaching the field." Now 
that was nobly done ; especially as Douglas and 
Randolph were always contending which should 
rise highest in the good opinion of the King and 
the nation. 

The van of the English army now came in 
sight, and a number of their bravest knights 
drew near to see what the Scots were doing. 
They saw King Robert dressed in his armor, 
and distinguished by a gold crown, which he 
wore over his helmet. He was not mounted on 
his great war-horse, because he did not expect to 
fight that evening. But he rode on a little pony 
up and down the ranks of his army, putting his 
men in order, and carried in his hand a sort of 
battle-axe made of steel. When the King saw 
the English horsemen draw near, he advanced a 
little before his own men, that he might look at 
them more nearly. 



Before the Battle 87 

There was a knight among the English, called 
Sir Henry de Bohun, who thought this would 
be a good opportunity to gain great fame to 
himself, and put an end to the war, by killing 
King Robert. The King being poorly mounted, 
and having no lance, Bohun galloped on him 
suddenly and furiously, thinking, with his long 
spear, and his tall powerful horse, easily to bear 
him down to the ground. King Robert saw 
him, and permitted him to come very near, then 
suddenly turned his pony a little to one side, 
so that Sir Henry missed him with the lance- 
point, and was in the act of being carried past 
him by the career of his horse. But as he 
passed, King Robert rose up in his stirrups, and 
struck Sir Henry on the head with his battle-axe 
so terrible a blow, that it broke to pieces his iron 
helmet as if it had been a nut-shell, and hurled 
him from his saddle. He was dead before he 
reached the ground. This gallant action was 
blamed by the Scottish leaders, who thought 
Bruce ought not to have exposed himself to so 
much danger when the safety of the whole army 
depended on him. The King only kept looking 
at his weapon, which was injured by the force 
of the blow, and said, " I have broken my goud 
battle-axe." 



CHAPTER XI 
BANNOCKBURN 

Now, Scotland ! shortly shalt thou see 
With God's high will, thy children free, 
And vengeance on thy foes ! 

—Scott. 

THE next morning, being the 24th June, 
at break of day, the battle began in ter- 
rible earnest. The English as they ad- 
vanced saw the Scots getting into line. The 
Abbot of Inchaffray walked through their ranks 
barefooted, and exhorted them to fight for their 
freedom. They kneeled down as he passed, and 
prayed to heaven for victory. King Edward, 
who saw this, called out, " They kneel down — 
they are asking forgiveness." " Yes," said a 
celebrated English baron called Ingelram de 
Umphraville, " but they ask it from God, not 
from us — these men will conquer, or die upon 
the field." 

The English King ordered his men to begin 
the battle. The archers then bent their bows, 
and began to shoot so closely together, that the 
88 



Bannockburn 89 

arrows fell like flakes of snow on a Christmas 
day. They killed many of the Scots, and might, 
as at Falkirk and other places, have decided the 
victory; but Bruce, as I told you before, was 
prepared for them. He had in readiness a body 
of men-at-arms, well mounted, who rode at full 
gallop among the archers, and as they had no 
weapons save their bows and arrows, which they 
could not use when they were attacked hand to 
hand, they were cut down in great numbers by 
the Scottish horsemen, and thrown into total 
confusion. 

The fine English cavalry then advanced to 
support their archers, and to attack the Scottish 
line. But coming over the ground which was 
dug full of pits, the horses fell into these holes, 
and the riders lay tumbling about, without any 
means of defense, and unable to rise, from the 
weight of their armor. The Englishmen began 
to fall into general disorder ; and the Scottish 
King, bringing up more of his forces, attacked 
and pressed them still more closely. 

On a sudden, while the battle was obstinately 
maintained on both sides, an event happened 
which decided the victory. The servants and 
attendants on the Scottish camp had, as I told 
you, been sent behind the army to a place after- 



go Stories From Scottish History 

ward called the Gillies' hill. But when they saw 
that their masters were likely to gain the day, 
they rushed from their place of concealment 
with such weapons as they could get, that they 
might have their share in the victory and in the 
spoil. The English, seeing them come suddenly 
over the hill, mistook this disorderly rabble for 
another army coming to sustain the Scots, and, 
losing all heart, began to shift every man for 
himself. Edward left the field as fast as he could 
ride. A valiant knight, Sir Giles de Argentine, 
much renowned in the wars of Palestine, at- 
tended the King till he got him out of the press 
of the combat. But he would retreat no farther. 
" It is not my custom," he said, " to fly." With 
that he took leave of the King, set spurs to his 
horse, and calling out his war-cry of Argentine ! 
Argentine ! he rushed into the thickest of the 
Scottish ranks, and was killed. 

Edward first fled to Stirling Castle, and en- 
treated admittance ; but Sir Philip Mowbray, the 
governor, reminded the fugitive Sovereign that 
he was obliged to surrender the castle next day, 
so Edward was fain to fly through the Torwood, 
closely pursued by Douglas with a body of cav- 
alry. An odd circumstance happened during 
the chase, which showed how loosely some of 



Bannockburn 91 

the Scottish Barons of that day held their polit- 
ical opinions. As Douglas was riding furiously 
after Edward, he met a Scottish knight, Sir Lau- 
rence Abernethy, with twenty horse. Sir Lau- 
rence had hitherto owned the English interest, 
and was bringing this band of followers to serve 
King Edward's army. But learning from Douglas 
that the English King was entirely defeated, he 
changed sides on the spot, and was easily pre- 
vailed upon to join Douglas in pursuing the 
unfortunate Edward, with the very followers 
whom he had been leading to join his standard. 

Douglas and Abernethy continued the chase, 
not giving King Edward time to alight from 
horseback even for an instant, and followed him 
as far as Dunbar, where the English had still a 
friend in the governor, Patrick Earl of March. 
The earl received Edward in his forlorn condi- 
tion, and furnished him with a fishing skiff, or 
small ship, in which he escaped to England, 
having entirely lost his fine army, and a great 
number of his bravest nobles. 

The English never before or afterward, whether 
in France or Scotland, lost so dreadful a battle as 
that of Bannockburn, nor did the Scots ever gain 
one of the same importance. Many of the best 
and bravest of the English nobility and gentry, 



92 Stories From Scottish History 

as I have said, lay dead on the field ; a great 
many more were made prisoners ; and the whole 
of King Edward's immense army was dispersed 
or destroyed. 

The English, after this great defeat, were no 
longer in a condition to support their pretensions 
to be masters of Scotland, or to continue, as they 
had done for nearly twenty years, to send armies 
into that country to overcome it. On the con- 
trary, they became for a time scarce able to 
defend their own frontiers against King Robert 
and his soldiers. 

Thus did Bruce arise from the condition of an 
exile, hunted with bloodhounds like a stag or 
beast of prey, to the rank of an independent 
sovereign, universally acknowledged to be one 
of the wisest and bravest kings who then lived. 
The nation of Scotland was also raised once more 
from the situation of a distressed and conquered 
province to that of a free and independent state, 
governed by its own laws, and subject to its own 
princes. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE MERCIFUL KNIGHT 

He was a veray parfit gentil knight. 

— Chaucer. 

YOU will be naturally curious to hear what 
became of Edward, the brother of Robert 
Bruce, who was so courageous, and at 
the same time so rash. The Irish, at that time, 
had been almost fully conquered by the English ; 
but becoming weary of them, the Irish chiefs, 
or at least a great many of them, invited Edward 
Bruce to come over, drive out the English, and 
become their king. He was willing enough to 
go, for he had always a high courageous spirit, 
and desired to obtain fame and dominion by 
fighting. Edward Bruce was as good a soldier 
as his brother, but not so prudent and cautious ; 
for, except in the affair of killing the Red Corny n, 
which was a wicked and violent action, Robert 
Bruce, in his latter days, showed himself as wise 
as he was courageous. However, he was well 
contented that his brother Edward, who had 
always fought so bravely for him, should be 
raised up to be King of Ireland. Therefore 
93 



94 Stories From Scottish History 

King Robert not only gave him an army to assist 
in making the conquest, but passed over the sea 
to Ireland himself in person, with a considerable 
body of troops to assist him. The Bruces gained 
several battles, and penetrated far into Ireland ; 
but the English forces were too numerous, and 
so many of the Irish joined with them rather 
than with Edward Bruce, that King Robert and 
his brother were obliged to retreat before them. 

The chief commander of the English was a 
great soldier, called Sir Edmund Butler, and he 
had assembled a much greater army than Edward 
Bruce and his brother King Robert had to oppose 
to him. The Scots were obliged to retreat every 
morning, that they might not be forced to battle 
by an army more numerous than their own. 

I have often told you, that King Robert the 
Bruce was a wise and a good prince. But a cir- 
cumstance happened during this retreat, which 
showed he was also a kind and humane man. It 
was one morning, when the English and their 
Irish auxiliaries were pressing hard upon Bruce, 
who had given his army orders to continue a 
hasty retreat ; for to have risked a battle with a 
much more numerous army, and in the midst of 
a country which favored his enemies, would have 
been extremely imprudent. On a sudden, just 



The Merciful Knight 95 

a^ King Robert was about to mount his horse, 
he heard a woman shrieking in despair. " What 
is the matter?" said the King; and he was in- 
formed by his attendants, that a poor woman, a 
laundress, or washerwoman, mother of an infant 
who had just been born, was about to be left be- 
hind the army, as being too weak to travel. The 
mother was shrieking for fear of falling into the 
hands of the Irish, who were accounted very cruel, 
and there were no carriages nor means of send- 
ing the woman and her infant on in safety. They 
must needs be abandoned if the army retreated. 

King Robert was silent for a moment when he 
heard this story, being divided between the feel- 
ings of humanity, occasioned by the poor wom- 
an's distress, and the danger to which a halt 
would expose his army. At last he looked round 
on his officers, with eyes which kindled like fire. 
" Ah, gentlemen," he said, " never let it be said 
that a man who was born of a woman, and 
nursed by a woman's tenderness, should leave a 
mother and an infant to the mercy of barbarians ! 
In the name of God, let the odds and the risk be 
what they will, I will fight Edmund Butler rather 
than leave those poor creatures behind me. Let 
the army, therefore, draw up in line of battle, in- 
stead of retreating." 



96 Stories From Scottish History 

The story had a singular conclusion; for the 
English general, seeing that Robert the Bruce: 
halted and offered him battle, and knowing that 
the Scottish King was one of the best generals 
then living, conceived that he must have received 
some large supply of forces, and was afraid to 
attack him. And thus Bruce had an oppor- 
tunity to send off the poor woman and her child, 
and then to retreat at his leisure, without suffer- 
ing any inconvenience from the halt. 

But Robert was obliged to leave the conquest 
of Ireland to his brother Edward, being recalled 
by pressing affairs to his own country. Edward, 
who was rash as he was brave, engaged against 
the advice of his best officers, in battle with an 
English general, called Sir Piers de Berming- 
ham. The Scots were surrounded on all sides, 
but continued to defend themselves valiantly, and 
Edward Bruce showed the example by fighting 
in the very front of the battle. At length a 
strong English champion, called John Maupas, 
engaged Edward hand to hand ; and they fought 
till they killed each other. Maupas was found 
lying after the battle upon the body of Bruce ; 
both were dead men. After Edward Bruce's 
death, the Scots gave up further attempts to con- 
quer Ireland. 



CHAPTER XIII 
A BORDER RAID 

Then mounte ! then mounte, brave gallants, all, 

And don your helmes amaine : 
Death's couriers, Fame and Honor, call 

Us to the field again. 

— W. Motherwell. 

EDWARD II, King of England, died in 
1327, and was succeeded by his son 
Edward III. He turned out afterward 
to be one of the wisest and bravest kings whom 
England ever had ; but when he first mounted 
the throne he was very young, and under the 
entire management of his mother, who governed 
by means of a wicked favorite called Mortimer. 

The war between the English and the Scots 
still lasting at the time, Bruce sent his two great 
commanders, the Good Lord James Douglas, and 
Thomas Randolph Earl of Murray, to lay waste 
the counties of Northumberland and Durham, 
and distress the English as much as they could. 

Their soldiers were about twenty thousand in 
number, all lightly armed, and mounted on 
horses that were but small in height, but excess- 
97 



98 Stories From Scottish History 

ively active. The men themselves carried no 
provision, except a bag of oatmeal ; and each 
had at his saddle a small plate of iron called a 
girdle, on which, when they pleased, they could 
bake the oatmeal into cakes. They killed the 
cattle of the English, as they traveled through 
the country, roasted the flesh on wooden spits, 
or boiled it in the skins of the animal themselves, 
putting in a little water with the beef, to prevent 
the fire from burning the hide to pieces. Jhis 
was rough cookery. They made their shoes, or 
rather sandals, in as coarse a way ; cutting them 
out of the raw hides of the cattle, and fitting 
them to their ankles, like what are now called 
short gaiters. As this sort of buskin had the 
hairy side of the hide outermost, the English 
called those who wore them rough-footed Scots, 
and sometimes, from the color of the hide, red- 
shanks. 

As such forces needed to carry nothing with 
them, either for provisions or ammunition, the 
Scots moved with amazing speed, from mountain 
to mountain, and from glen to glen, pillaging and 
destroying the country wherever they came. In 
the meanwhile, the young King of England pur- 
sued them with a much larger army ; but as it 
was encumbered by the necessity of carrying pro- 



A Border Raid gg 

visions in great quantities, and by the slow mo- 
tions of men in heavy armor, they could not 
come up with the Scots, although they saw every 
day the smoke of the houses and villages which 
they were burning. The King of England was 
extremely angry ; for, though only a boy of six- 
teen years old, he longed to fight the Scots, and 
to chastise them for the mischief they were doing 
to his country ; and at length he grew so impa- 
tient that he offered a large reward to any one 
who would show him where the Scottish army 
were. 

At length, after the English host had suffered 
severe hardships, from want of provisions, and 
fatiguing journeys through fords, and swamps, 
and morasses, a gentleman named Rokeby came 
into the camp, and claimed the reward which the 
King had offered. He told the King that he had 
been made prisoner by the Scots, and that they 
had said they should be as glad to meet the 
English King as he to see them. Accordingly, 
Rokeby guided the English army to the place 
where the Scots lay encamped. 

But the English King was no nearer to the bat- 
tle which he desired ; for Douglas and Randolph, 
knowing the force and numbers of the English 
army, had taken up their camp on a steep hill at 

LOFC. 



loo Stories From Scottish History 

the bottom of which ran a deep river, called the 
Wear, having a channel filled with large stones, 
so that there was no possibility for the English to 
attack the Scots without crossing the water, and 
then climbing up the steep hill in the very face 
of their enemy ; a risk which was too great to be 
attempted. 

Then the King sent a message of defiance to 
the Scottish generals, inviting them either to draw 
back their forces, and allow him freedom to cross 
the river, and time to place his army in order of 
battle on the other side, that they might fight 
fairly, or offering, if they liked it better, to per- 
mit them to cross over to his side without oppo- 
sition, that they might join battle on a fair field. 
Randolph and Douglas did nothing but laugh at 
this message. They said, that when they fought, 
it should be at their own pleasure, and not be- 
cause the King of England chose to ask for a 
battle. They reminded him, insultingly, how 
they had been in his country for many days, 
burning, taking spoil, and doing what they thought 
fit. If the King was displeased with this, they 
said, he must find his way across the river to fight 
them, the best way he could. 

The English King, determined not to quit sight 
of the Scots, encamped on the opposite side of 



A Border Raid 101 

the river to watch their motions, thinking that 
want of provisions would oblige them to quit 
their strong position on the mountains. But the 
Scots once more showed Edward their dexterity 
in marching, by leaving their encampment, and 
taking up another post, even stronger and more 
difficult to approach than the first which they 
had occupied. King Edward followed, and again 
encamped opposite to his dexterous and trouble- 
some enemies, desirous to bring them to a battle, 
when he might hope to gain an easy victory, 
having more than double the number of the Scot- 
tish army, all troops of the very best quality. 

While the armies lay thus opposed to each 
other, Douglas resolved to give the young King 
of England a lesson in the art of war. At the 
dead of night, he left the Scottish camp with a 
small body of chosen horse, not above two hun- 
dred, well armed. He crossed the river in deep 
silence, and came to the English camp, which 
was but carelessly guarded. Seeing this, Douglas 
rode past the English sentinels as if he had been 
an officer of the English army, saying, — " Ha, 
Saint George ! you keep bad watch here." — In 
those days, you must know, the English used to 
swear by Saint George, as the Scots did by Saint 
Andrew. Presently after, Douglas heard an Eng- 



102 Stories From Scottish History 

lish soldier, who lay stretched by the fire, say to 
his comrade, — " I cannot tell what is to happen to 
us in this place; but, for my part, I have a great 
fear of the Black Douglas playing us some trick." 

" You shall have cause to say so," said Douglas 
to himself. 

When he had thus got into the midst of the 
English camp without being discovered, he drew 
his sword, and cut asunder the ropes of a tent, 
calling out his usual war-cry, — " Douglas ! Doug- 
las ! English thieves, you are all dead men." 
His followers immediately began to cut down and 
overturn the tents, cutting and stabbing the Eng- 
lish soldiers as they endeavored to get to arms. 

Douglas forced his way to the pavilion of the 
King himself, and very nearly carried that young 
prince prisoner out of the middle of his great 
army. Edward's chaplain, however, and many 
of his household, stood to arms bravely in his 
defence, while the young King escaped by creep- 
ing away beneath the canvas of his tent. The 
chaplain and several of the King's officers were 
slain ; but the whole camp was now alarmed and 
in arms, so that Douglas was obliged to retreat, 
which he did by bursting through the English at 
the side of the camp opposite to that by which 
he had entered. Being separated from his men 



A Border Raid 103 

in the confusion, he was in great danger of being 
slain by an Englishman who encountered him 
with a huge club. This man he killed, but with 
considerable difficulty ; and then blowing his 
horn to collect his soldiers, who soon gathered 
around him, he returned to the Scottish camp, 
having sustained very little loss. 

Edward, much mortified at the insult which he 
had received, became still more desirous of chas- 
tising those audacious adversaries ; and one of 
them at least was not unwilling to afford him an 
opportunity of revenge. This was Thomas Ran- 
dolph, Earl of Murray. He asked Douglas when 
he returned to the Scottish camp, " What he had 
done ? " — " We have drawn some blood." — " Ah," 
said the earl, " had we gone altogether to the 
night attack, we should have discomfited them." 
— " It might well have been so," said Douglas, 
44 but the risk would have been too great." — 
" Then will we fight them in open battle," said 
Randolph, " for if we remain here, we shall in time 
be famished for want of provisions." — " Not so," 
replied Douglas ; " we will deal with this great 
army of the English as the fox did with the fish- 
erman in the fable." — " And how was that?" 
said the Earl of Murray. — Hereupon the Douglas 
told him this story : 



104 Stories From Scottish History 

" A fisherman," he said, " had made a hut by a 
riverside, that he might follow his occupation of 
fishing. Now, one night he had gone out to look 
after his nets, leaving a small fire in his hut ; and 
when he came back, behold there was a fox in 
the cabin, taking the liberty to eat one of the 
finest salmon he had taken. * Ho, Mr. Robber ! ' 
said the fisherman, drawing his sword, and stand- 
ing in the doorway to prevent the fox's escape, 
'you shall presently die the death.' The poor 
fox looked for some hole to get out at, but saw 
none ; whereupon he pulled down with his teeth 
a mantle, which was lying on the bed, and 
dragged it across the fire. The fisherman ran to 
snatch his mantle from the fire — the fox flew out 
at the door with the salmon ; — and so," said 
Douglas, " shall we escape the great English army 
by subtilty, and without risking battle with so 
large a force." 

Randolph agreed to act by Douglas's counsel, 
and the Scottish army kindled great fires through 
their encampment, and made a noise and shout- 
ing, and blowing of horns, as if they meant to 
remain all night there, as before. But in the 
meantime, Douglas had caused a road to be made 
through two miles of a great morass which lay 
in their rear. This was done by cutting down 



A Border Raid 105 

to the bottom of the bog, and filling the trench 
with fagots of wood. Without this contrivance 
it would have been impossible that the army 
could have crossed ; and through this passage, 
which the English never suspected, Douglas and 
Randolph, and all their men, moved at the dead 
of night. They did not leave so much as an er- 
rand-boy behind, and so bent their march toward 
Scotland, leaving the English disappointed and 
affronted. Great was their wonder in the morn- 
ing, when they saw the Scottish camp empty, 
and found no living men in it, but two or three 
English prisoners tied to trees, whom they had 
left with an insulting message to the King of 
England, saying, •' If he were displeased with 
what they had done, he might come and revenge 
himself in Scotland." 

The place where the Scots fixed this famous 
encampment, was in the forest of Weardale, in 
the bishopric of Durham ; and the road which 
they cut for the purpose of their retreat, is still 
called the Shorn Moss. 

After this a peace was concluded with Robert 
Bruce, on terms highly honorable to Scotland ; 
for the English King renounced all pretensions 
to the sovereignty of the country, and, moreover, 
gave his sister, a princess called Joanna, to be 



lo6 Stories From Scottish History- 
wife to Robert Bruce's son, called David. This 
treaty was very advantageous for the Scots. It 
was called the treaty of Northampton, because it 
was concluded at that town in the year 1 328. 



CHAPTER XIV 

GOOD LORD JAMES AND THE BRUCE'S 
HEART 

Fain would I wend a pilgrim 

Forth over land and sea, 
Where God's dear son for sinners died — 

Alas it must not be ! 
But if thy love be steadfast 

As it was proved of yore, — 
When these few struggling pulses 

Are stilled, and all is o'er, 
Unclose this lifeless bosom, 

Take then this heart of mine 
And bear it safely for my sake 

To holy Palestine. 

—M. B. Smedley. 

KING ROBERT was not aged more than 
fifty-four years, but he had fallen into 
bad health, caused by the hardships 
which he sustained during his youth, and at 
length he became very ill. Finding that he could 
not recover, he assembled around his bedside the 
nobles and counselors in whom he most trusted. 
He told them, that now, being on his deathbed, 
he sorely repented all his misdeeds, and particu- 
107 



108 Stories From Scottish History 

larly, that he had, in his passion, killed Comyn 
with his own hand, in the church and before the 
altar. He said that if he had lived, he had in- 
tended to go to Jerusalem, to make war upon the 
Saracens who held the Holy Land, as some ex- 
piation for the evil deeds he had done. But 
since he was about to die, he requested of his 
dearest friend and bravest warrior, and that was 
the Good Lord James Douglas, that he should 
carry his heart to the Holy Land. 

To make you understand the meaning of this 
request, I must tell you, that at this time a people 
called Saracens, who believed in the false prophet 
Mahomet, had obtained by conquest possession 
of Jerusalem, and the other cities and places 
which are mentioned in the Holy Scripture ; and 
the Christians of Europe, who went thither as 
pilgrims to worship at these places, where so 
many miracles had been wrought, were insulted 
by these heathen Saracens. Hence many armies 
of Christians went from their own countries out 
of every kingdom of Europe, to fight against 
these Saracens : and believed that they were do- 
ing a great service to religion, and that what sins 
they had committed would be pardoned by God 
Almighty, because they had taken a part in this 
which they called a holy warfare. You may re- 



Lord James and the Bruce's Heart 109 

member that Bruce thought of going upon this 
expedition when he was in despair of recovering 
the crown of Scotland ; and now he desired his 
heart to be carried to Jerusalem after his death, 
and requested Lord James of Douglas to take 
the charge of it. Douglas wept bitterly as he 
accepted this office, — the last mark of the Bruce's 
confidence and friendship. 

The King soon afterward expired; and his 
heart was taken out from his body and embalmed, 
that is, prepared with spices and perfumes, that 
it might remain a long time fresh and uncor- 
rupted. Then the Douglas caused a case of sil- 
ver to be made, into which he put the Bruce's 
heart, and wore it around his neck. 

"It was Lord James of Douglas 

Set sail across the brine, 
With a warrior band, to seek the land 

Of holy Palestine. 
A nobler knight than the good Lord James, 

In troth is seldom seen : 
His words, though few, were straight and true 

As his sword so bright and keen." l 

Lord James set forward for the Holy Land, 
with a gallant train of the bravest men in Scot- 
land, who, to show their value and sorrow for 

1 M. B. Smedley. 



l io Stories From Scottish History 

their brave King Robert, resolved to attend his 
heart to the city of Jerusalem. It had been much 
better for Scotland if the Douglas and his com- 
panions had stayed at home to defend their own 
country, which was shortly afterward in great 
want of their assistance. 

Neither did Douglas ever get to the end of his 
journey. In going to Palestine, he landed in 
Spain, where the Saracen King, or Sultan of 
Grenada, called Osmyn, was invading the realms 
of Alphonso, the Spanish King of Castile. King 
Alphonso received Douglas with great honor and 
distinction, and people came from all parts to see 
the great soldier, whose fame was well known 
through every part of the Christian world. King 
Alphonso easily persuaded the Scottish earl, that 
he would do good service to the Christian cause, 
by assisting him to drive back the Saracens of 
Grenada, before proceeding on his voyage to 
Jerusalem. Lord Douglas and his followers went 
accordingly to a great battle against Osmyn, and 
had little difficulty in defeating the Saracens who 
were opposed to them. But being ignorant of 
the mode of fighting among the cavalry of the 
East, the Scots pursued the chase too far, and the 
Moors, when they saw them scattered and sepa- 
rated from each other, turned suddenly back, with 



Lord James and the Bruce's Heart 1 1 1 

a loud cry of Allah illah Allah, which is their 
shout of battle, and surrounded such of the Scot- 
tish knights and squires as had advanced too 
hastily, and were dispersed from each other. 

In this new skirmish, Douglas saw Sir William 
St. Clair of Roslyn fighting desperately, sur- 
rounded by many Moors, who were hewing at him 
with their sabres. " Yonder worthy knight will be 
slain," Douglas said, " unless he have instant help." 
With that he galloped to his rescue, but presently 
was himself also surrounded by many Moors. 
When he found the enemy press so thick round 
him, as to leave him no chance of escaping, the 
Earl took from his neck the Bruce's heart, and 
speaking to it, as he would have done to the 
King had he been alive, — " Pass first in fight," he 
said, " as thou were wont to do, and Douglas will 
follow thee, or die." He then threw the King's 
heart among the enemy, and rushing forward to 
the place where it fell, was there slain. His 
body was found lying above the silver case, as if 
it had been his last object to defend the Bruce's 
heart. 

Since the time of the Good Lord James, the 
Douglases have carried upon their shields a bloody 
heart, with a crown upon it, in memory of this 
expedition. 



1 1 2 Stories From Scottish History 

This Good Lord James of Douglas was one of 
the best and wisest soldiers that ever drew a 
sword. He was said to have fought in seventy 
battles, being beaten in thirteen, and victorious in 
fifty-seven. Scottish historians describe Lord 
James as one who was never dejected by bad 
fortune, or unduly elated by that which was 
good. They say he was modest and gentle in 
time of peace, but had a very different counte- 
nance upon the day of battle. He was tall, 
strong, and well made, of a swarthy complexion, 
with dark hair, from which he was called the 
Black Douglas. He lisped a little in his speech, 
but in a manner which became him very much. 
Notwithstanding the many battles in which he 
had fought, his face had escaped without a 
wound. A brave Spanish knight at the court of 
King Alphonso, whose face was scarred by the 
marks of Moorish sabres, expressed wonder that 
Douglas's countenance should be unmarked with 
wounds. Douglas replied modestly, he thanked 
God, who had always enabled his hands to guard 
and protect his face. 

Many of Douglas's followers were slain in the 
battle in which he himself fell. The rest resolved 
not to proceed on their journey to Palestine, but 
to return to Scotland. They brought back the 



Lord James and the Bruce's Heart 113 

heart of the Bruce, and the bones of the Good 
Lord James. These last were interred in the 
church of St. Bride, where Thomas Dickson and 
Douglas held so terrible a Palm Sunday. The 
Bruce's heart was buried below the high altar in 
Melrose Abbey. As for his body, it was laid in 
the sepulchre in the midst of the church of Dun- 
fermline, under a marble stone. But the church 
becoming afterward ruinous, and the roof falling 
down with age, the monument was broken to 
pieces, and nobody could tell where it stood. 
When they were repairing the church of Dun- 
fermline, and removing the rubbish, lo ! they 
found fragments of the marble tomb of Robert 
Bruce. Then they began to dig farther, thinking 
to discover the body of this celebrated monarch ; 
and at length they came to the skeleton of a tall 
man, and they knew it must be that of King 
Robert, both as he was known to have been 
buried in a winding-sheet of cloth of gold, of 
which many fragments were found about this 
skeleton, and also because the breastbone ap- 
peared to have been sawed through, in order to 
take out the heart. So orders were sent from the 
King's Court of Exchequer to guard the bones 
carefully, until a new tomb should be prepared, 
into which they were laid with profound respect. 



] 14 Stories From Scottish History 

A great many gentlemen and ladies attended, 
and almost all the common people in the neigh- 
borhood ; and as the church could not hold half 
the numbers, the people were allowed to pass 
through it, one after another, that each one, the 
poorest as well as the richest, might see all that 
remained of the great King Robert Bruce, who 
restored the Scottish monarchy. Many people 
shed tears ; for there was the wasted skull, which 
once was the head that thought so wisely and 
boldly for his country's deliverance; and there 
was the dry bone, which had once been the 
sturdy arm that killed Sir Henry de Bohun, be- 
tween the two armies, at a single blow, on the 
evening before the battle of Bannockburn. 



CHAPTER XV 

BATTLE AND TOURNEY 

Our business is to fight like men 
And hero-like to die ! 

— W. Motherwell. 

ROBERT BRUCE, the greatest king who 
ever wore the Scottish crown, being 
dead, the kingdom descended to his son 
David, who was only four years old at his father's 
death. 

King Robert was no sooner in his grave than 
the enemies of his family began to plot the 
means of destroying the government which he 
had established. The principal person concerned 
in these machinations was Edward Baliol, the 
son of that John Baliol, who was formerly cre- 
ated King of Scotland by Edward I, and after- 
ward dethroned by him, and committed to 
prison, when Edward desired to seize upon the 
country for himself. Edward Baliol, seeing, as 
he thought, a favorable opportunity, resolved to 
renew the claim of his father to the Scottish 
throne. 

"5 



n6 Stories From Scottish History 

In 1333, Edward III of England formally de- 
clared war against Scotland, proposing to support 
the cause of Baliol, to take possession of Ber- 
wick, which that pretended King had yielded up 
to him, and to chastise the Scots for what he 
called their rebellion. He placed himself at the 
head of a great army, and marched toward the 
frontier. 

In the meantime, the war had begun in a man- 
ner most unfavorable for Scotland. Archibald 
Douglas, the brother of the Good Lord James, 
was appointed Regent, and advanced with a 
large army to relieve the town of Berwick, then 
closely besieged by Edward III with all his host. 
The garrison made a determined defence, and the 
Regent endeavored to relieve them by giving 
battle to the English, in which he showed more 
courage than military conduct. 

The Scottish army were drawn up on the side 
of an eminence called Halidon Hill, within two 
miles of Berwick. King Edward moved with his 
whole host to attack them. The battle, like that 
of Falkirk and many others, was decided by that 
formidable force, the archers of England. They 
were posted in a marshy ground, from which 
they discharged their arrows in the most tre- 
mendous and irresistible volleys against the Scots, 



Battle and Tourney 117 

who, drawn up on the slope of the hill, were 
fully exposed to this destructive discharge, with- 
out having the means of answering it. 

These English archers were the best ever 
known in war. They were accustomed to the 
use of the bow from the time they were children 
of seven years old, when they were made to 
practice with a little bow suited to their size and 
strength, which was every year exchanged for 
one larger and stronger, till they were able to 
draw that of a full-grown man. Besides being 
thus familiarized with the weapon, the archers of 
England were taught to draw the bowstring to 
their right ear, while other European nations 
only drew it to their breast. If you try the dif- 
ference of the posture, you will find that a much 
longer arrow can be drawn to the ear than to the 
breast, because the right hand has more room. 

While the Scots suffered under these practiced 
and skilful archers, whose arrows fell like hail 
among them, throwing their ranks into disorder, 
and piercing the finest armor as if it had been 
pasteboard, they made desperate attempts to de- 
scend the hill, and come to close combat. But 
these efforts were unavailing, and the defeat of 
the Scots was complete. A number of their best 
and bravest nobility were slain, and among them 



Ii8 Stories From Scottish History- 
Archibald Douglas, the Regent ; very many were 
made prisoners. Berwick surrendered in conse- 
quence of the defeat, and Scotland seemed again 
to be completely conquered by the English. 

Throughout the whole country only four cas- 
tles and a small tower acknowledged the sov- 
ereignty of David Bruce, after the battle of Hal- 
idon ; and it is wonderful to see how, by their 
efforts, the patriots soon afterward changed for 
the better that unfavorable and seemingly des- 
perate state of things. In the several skirmishes 
and battles which were fought all over the king- 
dom, the Scots, knowing the country, and having 
the good-will of the inhabitants, were generally 
successful, as also in surprising castles and forts, 
cutting off convoys of provisions which were 
going to the English, and destroying scattered 
parties of the enemy ; so that, by a long and in- 
cessant course of fighting, the patriots gradually 
regained what they lost in great battles. I will 
tell you one or two of the incidents which befel 
during this bloody war. 

Lochleven Castle, situated on an island upon a 
large lake, was one of the four which held out in 
name of David the Bruce, and would not submit 
to Edward Baliol. The governor was a loyal 
Scotsman, called Alan Vipont, assisted by Jaques, 



Battle and Tourney 119 

or James, Lamby. The castle was besieged by 
Sir John Stirling, a follower of John Baliol, with 
an army of English. As the besiegers dared not 
approach the island with boats, Stirling fell on a 
singular device to oblige the garrison to surren- 
der. There is a small river, called the Leven, 
which runs out of the eastern extremity of the 
lake, or loch. Across this stream the besiegers 
reared a very strong and lofty mound, or barrier, 
so as to prevent the waters of the Leven from 
leaving the lake. They expected that the waters 
of the lake would rise in consequence of being 
thus confined, and that they would overflow the 
island, and oblige Vipont to surrender. But 
Vipont sending out at dead of night a small 
boat with four men, they made a breach in the 
mound ; and the whole body of water, breaking 
forth with incredible fury, swept away the tents, 
baggage, and troops of the besiegers, and nearly 
destroyed their army. The remains of the Eng- 
lish mound are shown to this day, though some 
doubt has been expressed as to the truth of the 
incident. It is certain the English were obliged 
to raise the siege with loss. 

Among the warlike exploits of this period, we 
must not forget the defense of the castle of Dun- 
bar by the celebrated Countess of March. Her 



120 Stories From Scottish History- 
lord had embraced the side of David Bruce, and 
had taken the field with the Regent. The 
countess, who from her complexion was termed 
Black Agnes, by which name she is still famil- 
iarly remembered, was a high-spirited and cour- 
ageous woman, the daughter of Thomas Ran- 
dolph, Earl of Murray, and the heiress of his 
valor and patriotism. The castle of Dunbar 
itself was very strong, being built upon a chain 
of rocks stretching into the sea, and having only 
one passage to the mainland, which was well 
fortified. It was besieged by Montague, Earl of 
Salisbury, who employed to destroy its walls 
great military engines, constructed to throw huge 
stones, with which machines fortifications were 
attacked before the use of cannon. 

Black Agnes set all his attempts at defiance, 
and showed herself with her maids on the walls 
of the castle, wiping the places where the huge 
stones fell with a clean towel, as if they could do 
no ill to her castle, save raising a little dust, 
which a napkin could wipe away. 

The Earl of Salisbury then commanded his 
engineers to bring forward to the assault an 
engine of another kind, being a sort of wooden 
shed, or house, rolled forward on wheels, with a 
roof of peculiar strength, which from resembling 



Battle and Tourney 121 

the ridge of a hog's back, occasioned the ma- 
chine to be called a sow. This, according to the 
old mode of warfare, was thrust close up to the 
walls of a besieged castle or city, and served to 
protect from the arrows and stones of the be- 
sieged a party of soldiers placed within the sow, 
who, being thus defended, were in the meanwhile 
employed in undermining the wall, or breaking 
an entrance through it with pickaxes and mining 
tools. When the Countess of March saw this 
engine advance to the walls of the castle, she 
called out to the Earl of Salisbury in derision 
and making a kind of rhyme, — 

"Beware, Montagow, 
For farrow shall thy sow." 

At the same time she made a signal, and a huge 
fragment of rock, which hung prepared for the 
purpose, was dropped down from the wall upon 
the sow, whose roof was thus dashed to pieces. 
As the English soldiers, who had been within it, 
were running as fast as they could to get out of 
the way of the arrows and stones which were 
discharged on them from the wall, Black Agnes 
called out, "Behold the litter of English pigs !" 
The Earl of Salisbury could jest also on such 
serious occasions. One day he rode near the 



122 Stories From Scottish History- 
walls with a knight dressed in armor of proof, 
having three folds of mail over an acton, or 
leathern jacket; notwithstanding which, one 
William Spens shot an arrow from the battle- 
ments of the castle with such force, that it pene- 
trated all these defences, and reached the heart 
of the wearer. " That is one of my lady's love- 
tokens," said the earl, as he saw the knight fall 
dead from his horse. " Black Agnes's love-shafts 
pierce to the heart." 

Upon another occasion, the Countess of March 
had well nigh made the Earl of Salisbury her 
prisoner. She caused one of her people enter 
into treaty with the besiegers, pretending to 
betray the castle. Trusting to this agreement, 
the earl came at midnight before the gate, which 
he found open, and the portcullis drawn up. As 
Salisbury was about to enter, one John Copland, 
a squire of Northumberland, pressed on before 
him, and as soon as he passed the threshold, the 
portcullis was dropped, and thus the Scots missed 
their principal prey, and made prisoner only a 
person of inferior condition. 

At length the castle of Dunbar was relieved 
by Alexander Ramsay of Dalwolsy, who brought 
the countess supplies by sea both of men and 
provisions. The Earl of Salisbury, learning 



Battle and Tourney 123 

this, despaired of success, and raised the siege, 
which had lasted nineteen weeks. The minstrels 
made songs in praise of the perseverance and 
courage of Black Agnes. The following lines 
are nearly the sense of what is preserved : — 

" She kept a stir in tower and trench, 

That brawling boisterous Scottish wench ; 
Came I early, came I late, 
I found Agnes at the gate." 

In the middle of these troubles, the English 
and Scottish knights and nobles, when there was 
any truce between the countries, supplied the 
place of the wars in which they were commonly 
engaged, with tournaments and games of chivalry. 
These were meetings not for the express pur- 
pose of fighting, but for that of trying which 
was the best man-at-arms. But instead of wrest- 
ling, leaping, or running races on foot or horse, 
the fashion then was that the gentlemen tilted 
together, that is, rode against each other in ar- 
mor with their long lances, and tried which 
could bear the other out of the saddle, and 
throw him to the ground. Sometimes they 
fought on foot with swords and axes ; and al- 
though all was meant in courtesy and fair play, 
yet lives were often lost in this idle manner 



124 Stories From Scottish History 

as much as if the contest had been carried on 
with the purpose of armed battle and deadly 
hatred. In later days they fought with swords 
purposely blunted on the edge, and with lances 
which had no steel point ; but in the times we 
speak of at present, they used in tilts and tour- 
naments the same weapons which they employed 
in war. 

A very noted entertainment of this kind was 
given to both Scottish and English champions 
by Henry of Lancaster, then called Earl of Derby> 
and afterward King Henry IV of England. 
He invited the Knight of Liddesdale, the good 
Sir Alexander Ramsay, and about twenty other 
distinguished Scottish knights, to a tilting match, 
which was to take place near Berwick. After 
receiving and entertaining his Scottish guests 
nobly, the Earl of Derby began to inquire of 
Ramsay in what manner of armor the knights 
should tilt together. 

" With shields of plate," said Ramsay, " such 
as men use in tournaments." 

This may be supposed a peculiarly weighty 
and strong kind of armor, intended merely for 
this species of encounter. 

" Nay," said the Earl of Derby, " we shall 
gain little praise if we tilt in such safety ; let us 



Battle and Tourney 125 

rather use the lighter armor which we wear in 
battle." 

" Content are we," answered Sir Alexander 
Ramsay, " to fight in our silk doublets, if such 
be your lordship's pleasure." 

The Knight of Liddesdale was wounded on 
the wrist by the splinter of a spear, and was 
obliged to desist from the exercise. A Scottish 
knight called Sir Patrick Grahame tilted with a 
warlike English baron named Talbot, whose life 
was saved by his wearing two breastplates. The 
Scottish lance pierced through both, and sunk 
an inch into the breast. Had he been only 
armed as according to agreement, Talbot had 
been a dead man. Another English knight 
challenged the Grahame at supper-time, to run 
three courses with him the next day. 

" Dost thou ask to tilt with me ? " said the 
Grahame ; " rise early in the morning, confess 
your sins, and make your peace with God, for 
you shall sup in paradise." Accordingly, on the 
ensuing morning, Grahame ran him through the 
body with his lance, and he died on the spot. 
Another English knight was also slain, and one 
of the Scots mortally wounded. William Ram- 
say was borne through the helmet with a lance, 
the splinter of the broken spear remaining in 



126 Stories From Scottish History 

his skull, and nailing his helmet to his head. As 
he was expected to die on the spot, a priest was 
sent for, who heard him confess his sins, without 
the helmet being removed. 

" Ah, it is a goodly sight," quoth the good 
Earl of Derby, much edified by this spectacle, 
" to see a knight make his shrift " (that is, con- 
fession of his sins) " in his helmet. God send 
me such an ending ! " 

But when the shrift was over, Sir Alexander 
Ramsay, to whom the wounded knight was 
brother, or kinsman, made him lie down at full 
length, and, with surgery as rough as their 
pastime, held his friend's head down with his 
foot, while, by main strength, he pulled the frag- 
ment of the spear out of the helmet, and out of 
the wound. Then William Ramsay started up, 
and said, " that he should do well enough." 

" Lo ! what stout hearts men may bear ! " said 
the Earl of Derby, as much admiring the sur- 
gical treatment as he had done the religious. 
Whether the patient lived or died, does not 
appear. 

In fixing the prizes, it was settled that the 
English knights should decide which of the Scots 
had done best, and the Scots should, in like man- 
ner, judge the valor of the English. Much equity 



Battle and Tourney 127 

was shown in the decision on both sides, and the 
Earl of Derby was munificent in distribution of 
gifts and prizes. This may serve to show you 
the amusements of this stirring period, of which 
war and danger were the sport as well as the 
serious occupation. 



CHAPTER XVI 
DOUGLAS AT OTTERBURN 

But I have dream'd a dreary dream, 

Beyond the Isle of Sky ; 
I saw a dead man win a fight 

And I think that man was I. 

—Ballad of the Battle of Otter burn. 

IT was from prudence, not from want of cour- 
age, that the Scots avoided great battles 
with the English. They readily engaged in 
smaller actions, when they fought with the utmost 
valor on both sides, till, as an old historian ex- 
presses it, sword and lance could endure no 
longer, and then they would part from each 
other, saying, " Good-day ; and thanks for the 
sport you have shown." A very remarkable in- 
stance of such a desperate battle occurred in the 
year 1388. 

The Scottish nobles had determined upon an 
invasion of England on a large scale, and had 
assembled a great army for that purpose ; but 
learning that the people of Northumberland were 
raising an army on the eastern frontier, they re- 
128 



Douglas at Otterburn 129 

solved to limit their incursion to that which 
might be achieved by the Earl of Douglas, with 
a chosen band of four or five thousand men. 
With this force he penetrated into the mountain- 
ous frontier of England, where an assault was 
least expected, and issuing forth near Newcastle, 
fell upon the flat and rich country around, slay- 
ing, plundering, burning, and loading his army 
with spoil. 

Percy, Earl of Northumberland, an English 
noble of great power, and with whom the Douglas 
had frequently had encounters, sent his two sons, 
Sir Henry and Sir Ralph Percy, to stop the 
progress of this invasion. Both were gallant 
knights ; but the first, who, from his impetuosity, 
was called Hotspur, was one of the most distin- 
guished warriors in England, as Douglas was in 
Scotland. The brothers threw themselves hastily 
into Newcastle, to defend that important town ; 
and as Douglas, in an insulting manner, drew up 
his followers before the walls, they came out to 
skirmish with the Scots. Douglas and Henry 
Percy encountered personally ; and it so chanced, 
that Douglas in the struggle got possession of 
Hotspur's spear, to the end of which was attached 
a small ornament of silk, embroidered with pearls, 
on which was represented a lion, the cognizance, 



130 Stories From Scottish History 

as it is called, of the Percies. Douglas shook 
this trophy aloft, and declared that he would 
carry it into Scotland, and plant it on his castle 
of Dalkeith. 

" That," said Percy, " shalt thou never do. I 
will regain my lance ere thou canst get back 
into Scotland." 

" Then," said Douglas, " come to seek it, and 
thou shalt find it before my tent." 

The Scottish army, having completed the pur- 
pose of their expedition, began their retreat up 
the vale of the little river Reed, which afforded a 
tolerable road running northwestward toward 
their own frontier. They encamped at Otter- 
burn, about twenty miles from the Scottish 
border, on the 19th August, 1388. 

In the middle of the night, the alarm arose in 
the Scottish camp, that the English host were 
coming upon them, and the moonlight showed 
the approach of Sir Henry Percy, with a body of 
men superior in number to that of Douglas. He 
had already crossed the Reed water, and was ad- 
vancing toward the left flank of the Scottish 
army. Douglas, not choosing to receive the as- 
sault in that position, drew his men out of the 
camp, and with a degree of military skill which 
could scarce have been expected when his forces 



Douglas at Otterburn 131 

were of such an undisciplined character, he al- 
together changed the position of the army, and 
presented his troops with their front to the ad- 
vancing English. 

Hotspur, in the meantime, marched his squad- 
rons through the deserted camp, where there 
were none left but a few servants and stragglers 
of the army. The interruptions which the Eng- 
lish troops met with, threw them a little into dis- 
order, when the moon arising showed them the 
Scottish army, which they had supposed to be 
retreating, drawn up in complete order, and pre- 
pared to fight. The battle commenced with the 
greatest fury ; for Percy and Douglas were the 
two most distinguished soldiers of their time, and 
each army trusted in the courage and talents of 
their commanders, whose names were shouted on 
either side. The Scots, who were outnumbered, 
were at length about to give way, when Douglas, 
their leader, caused his banner to advance, at- 
tended by his best men. He himself shouting 
his war-cry of " Douglas ! " rushed forward, 
clearing his way with the blows of his battle-axe, 
and breaking into the very thickest of the enemy. 
He fell, at length, under three mortal wounds. 
Had his death been observed by the enemy, the 
event would probably have decided the battle 



132 Stories From Scottish History 

against the Scots ; but the English only knew 
that some brave man-at-arms had fallen. Mean- 
time the other Scottish nobles pressed forward, 
and found their general dying among several of 
his faithful esquires and pages, who lay slain 
around. A stout priest, called William of North 
Berwick, the chaplain of Douglas, was protect- 
ing the body of his wounded patron with a long 
lance. 

" How fares it, cousin ? " said Sinclair, the first 
Scottish knight who came up to the expiring 
leader. 

" Indifferently," answered Douglas ; " but 
blessed be God, my ancestors have died in fields 
of battle, not on down-beds. I sink fast ; but let 
them still cry my war-cry, and conceal my death 
from my followers. There was a tradition in our 
family that a dead Douglas should win a field, 
and I trust it will be this day accomplished." 

The nobles did as he had enjoined ; they con- 
cealed the Earl's body, and again rushed on to 
the battle, shouting " Douglas ! Douglas ! 
louder than before. The English were weakened 
by the loss of the brave brothers, Henry and 
Ralph Percy, both of whom were made prisoners, 
fighting most gallantly, and almost no man of 
note among the English • escaped death or cap- 



Douglas at Otterburn 133 

tivity. Hence a Scottish poet has said of the 
name of Douglas, 

" Hosts have been known at that dread sound to yield, 
And, Douglas dead, his name hath won the field." 

Sir Henry Percy became the prisoner of Sir 
Hugh Montgomery, who obliged him for ransom 
to build a castle for him at Penoon in Ayrshire. 
The battle of Otterburn was disastrous to the 
leaders on both sides — Percy being made captive, 
and Douglas slain on the field. It has been the 
subject of many songs and poems, and the great 
historian Froissart says, that one other action 
only excepted, it was the best fought battle of 
that warlike time. 






CHAPTER XVII 
CLANS CHATTAN AND KAY 

A wild world, my masters, this Scotland of ours must have 
been. No fear of want of interest ; no lassitude in those days 
for want of work — 

" For treason, d'ye see, 
Was to them a dish of tea 

And murder, bread and butter." 

— From Sir W. Scott 's Diary. 

THE disturbances of the Highlands were 
one of the plagues of the reign of 
Robert III. That extensive range of 
mountains was inhabited by a race of men differ- 
ent in language and manners from the Lowland- 
ers, and divided into families called clans. The 
English termed them Wild Scots, and the French 
the Scottish Savages ; and, in good truth, very 
wild and savage they seem to have been. 

These Highlanders were much addicted to 
quarrel with each other. Two clans, or rather 
two leagues or confederacies, composed each of 
several separate clans, fell into such deadly feud 
with each other, as filled the whole neighborhood 
with slaughter and discord. 
J 34 



Clans Chattan and Kay 135 

When this feud or quarrel could be no other- 
wise ended, it was resolved that the difference 
should be decided by a combat of thirty men of 
the Clan Chattan, against the same number of 
the Clan Kay ; that the battle should take place 
on the North Inch of Perth, a beautiful and level 
meadow, in part surrounded by the river Tay ; and 
that it should be fought in presence of the King 
and his nobles. Now, there was a cruel policy 
in this arrangement ; for it was to be supposed 
that all the best and leading men of each clan 
would desire to be among the thirty which were 
to fight for their honor, and it was no less to be 
expected that the battle would be very bloody 
and desperate. Thus, the probable event would 
be, that both clans, having lost very many of 
their best and bravest men, would be more easily 
managed in future. Such was probably the view 
of the King and his counselors in permitting this 
desperate conflict, which however, was much in 
the spirit of the times. 

The parties on each side were drawn out, 
armed with sword and target, axe and dagger, 
and stood looking on each other with fierce and 
savage aspects, when, just as the signal for fight 
was expected, the commander of the Clan 
Chattan perceived that one of his men, whose 



136 Stories From Scottish History 

heart had failed him, had deserted his standard. 
There was no time to seek another man from the 
clan, so the chieftain, as his only resource, was 
obliged to offer a reward to any one who would 
fight in the room of the fugitive. Perhaps you 
think it might be difficult to get a man, who, for 
a small hire, would undergo the perils of a battle 
which was likely to be so obstinate and deadly. 
But in that fighting age, men valued their lives 
lightly. One Henry Wynd, a citizen of Perth, 
and a saddler by trade, a little bandy-legged man, 
but of great strength and activity, and well 
accustomed to use the broadsword, offered him- 
self, for half a French crown, to serve on the part 
of the Clan Chattan in the battle of that day. 

The signal was then given by sound of the 
royal trumpets, and of the great war-bagpipes of 
the Highlanders, and the two parties fell on each 
other with the utmost fury ; their natural ferocity 
of temper being excited by feudal hatred against 
the hostile clan, zeal for the honor of their own, 
and a consciousness that they were fighting in 
presence of the King and nobles of Scotland. 
As they fought with the two-handed sword and 
axe, the wounds they inflicted on each other were 
of a ghastly size and character. Heads were 
cloven asunder, limbs were lopped from the 



Clans Chattan and Kay 137 

trunk. The meadow was soon drenched with 
blood, and covered with dead and wounded men. 

In the midst of the deadly conflict, the chieftain 
of the Clan Chattan observed that Henry Wynd, 
after he had slain one of the Clan Kay, drew aside, 
and did not seem willing to fight more. 

" How is this," said he, (i art thou afraid ? " 

" Not I," answered Henry; " but I have done 
enough of work for half- a- crown." 

" Forward and fight," said the Highland chief; 
" he that doth not grudge his day's work, I will 
not stint him in his wages." 

Thus encouraged, Henry Wynd again plunged 
into the conflict, and, by his excellence as a 
swordsman, contributed a great deal to the victory, 
which at length fell to the Clan Chattan. Ten of 
the victors, with Henry Wynd, whom the High- 
landers called the Gow Chrom (that is, the crooked 
or bandy-legged smith, for he was both a smith 
and a saddler, war-saddles being then made of 
steel), were left alive, but they were all wounded. 
Only one of the Clan Kay survived, and he was 
unhurt. But this single individual dared not 
oppose himself to eleven men, though all more or 
less injured, but, throwing himself into the Tay, 
swam to the other side, and went ofT to carry to 
the Highlands the news of his clan's defeat. It 



138 Stories From Scottish History- 
is said, he was so ill received by his kinsmen that 
he put himself to death. 

Some part of the above story is matter of tra- 
dition, but the general fact is certain. Henry 
Wynd was rewarded to the Highland chieftain's 
best abilities ; but it was remarked, that, when 
the battle was over, he was not able to tell the 
name of the clan he had fought for, replying, 
when asked on which side he had been, that he 
was fighting for his own hand. Hence the 
proverb, " Every man for his own hand, as Henry 
Wynd fought." 



CHAPTER XVIII 
THE POET KING 

sleep ye sound, Sir James, she said, 

When ye suld rise and ride ! 
There's twenty men wi' bow and blade, 

Are seeking where ye hide. 

— From The Heart of Midlothian. 

KING ROBERT III, had a son, called 
James, whom he was probably afraid to 
intrust to the keeping of Albany, the 
King's own brother, as his death would have 
rendered that ambitious prince next heir to the 
throne. He resolved, therefore, to send the 
young prince when eleven years old to France, 
under pretence that he would receive a better 
education there than Scotland could afford him. 
An English vessel captured that on board of 
which the prince was sailing to France, and 
James was sent to London. When Henry heard 
that the Prince of Scotland was in his power, he 
resolved to detain him a prisoner. This was very 
unjust, for the countries of England and Scotland 
were at peace together at the time. The King 
139 



140 Stories From Scottish History- 
sent him to prison, however, saying that " the 
prince would be as well educated at his court as 
at that of France, for that he understood French 
well." This was said in mockery, but Henry 
kept his word in this point ; and though the 
Scottish prince was confined unjustly, he received 
an excellent education at the expense of the 
English monarch. 

This misfortune, which placed the only remain- 
ing son of the poor old King in the hands of the 
English, seems to have broken the heart of 
Robert III, who died about a year afterward, 
overwhelmed with calamities and infirmity. 

By 1424, the English Government were not 
unwilling to deliver up James, the rather that he 
had fallen in love with Joanna, the Earl of 
Somerset's daughter, nearly related to the royal 
family of England. They considered that this 
alliance would incline the young prince to peace 
with England ; and that the education which he 
had received, and the friendships which he had 
formed in that country, would incline him to be a 
good and peaceable neighbor. The Scots agreed 
to pay a considerable ransom ; and upon these 
terms James, the first of that name, was set at 
liberty, and returned to become king in Scotland, 
after eighteen years captivity. 



The Poet King 141 

This King James, the first monarch of the 
name, was also the first of his unfortunate family 
who showed a high degree of ability. He had 
received an excellent education, of which his tal- 
ents had enabled him to make the best use. He 
was also prudent and just, consulted the interests 
of his people, and endeavored, as far as he could, 
to repress those evils, which had grown up during 
his years of imprisonment in England. 

James I restored a considerable degree of tran- 
quillity to the country, which he found in such a 
distracted state. He made wise laws for regu- 
lating the commerce of the nation, both at home 
and with other states, and strict regulations for 
the administration of justice between those who 
had complaints against one another. 

Rut his greatest labor, and that which he found 
most difficult to accomplish, was to diminish the 
power of the great nobles, who ruled like so 
many kings, each on his own territory and estate, 
and made war on the King, or upon one another, 
whenever it was their pleasure to do so. These 
disorders he endeavored to check, and had several 
of these great persons brought to trial, and, upon 
their being found guilty, deprived them of their 
estates. The nobles complained that this was 
done out of spite against them, and that they 



142 Stories From Scottish History 

were treated with hardship and injustice ; and 
thus discontents were entertained against this 
good Prince. Another cause of offense was, that 
to maintain justice, and support the authority of 
the throne, it was found necessary that some 
taxes for this purpose should be raised from the 
subjects ; and the Scottish people being poor, 
and totally unaccustomed to pay any such con- 
tributions, they imputed this odious measure to 
the King's avarice. And thus, though King 
James was so well-intentioned a King, and cer- 
tainly the ablest who had reigned in Scotland 
since the days of Robert Bruce, yet both the 
high and the low murmured against him, which 
encouraged some wicked men among the nobil- 
ity to conspire his death. 

The chief person in the plot was one Sir 
Robert Graham, uncle to the Earl of Stratherne. 
He was bold and ambitious, and highly offended 
with the King on account of an imprisonment 
which he had sustained by the royal command. 
He drew into the plot the Earl of Athole, an old 
man of little talent, by promising to make his 
son, Sir Robert Stewart, King of Scotland, in 
place of James. Others were engaged in the 
conspiracy from different motives. To prepare 
his scheme, Graham retreated into the remote 



The Poet King 143 

Highlands, and from thence sent a defiance, re- 
nouncing his allegiance to the King, and threat- 
ening to put his sovereign to death with his own 
hand. A price was set upon his head, payable 
to any one who should deliver him up to justice; 
but he lay concealed in the wild mountains to 
prosecute his revenge against James. 

The Christmas preceding his murder was ap- 
pointed by the King for holding a feast at Perth. 
In his way to that town he was met by a High- 
land woman, calling herself a prophetess. She 
stood by the side of the ferry by which he was 
about to travel to the north, and cried with a 
loud voice, — " My Lord the King, if you pass 
this water, you will never return again alive." 
The King was struck with this for a moment, be- 
cause he had read in a book that a king should 
be slain that year in Scotland ; for it often hap- 
pens, that when a remarkable deed is in agitation, 
rumors of it get abroad, and are repeated under 
pretence of prophecies ; but which are, in truth, 
only conjectures of that which seems likely to 
happen. There was a knight in the court, on 
whom the King had conferred the name of the 
King of Love, to whom the King said in jest, — 
" There is a prophecy that a king shall be killed 
in Scotland this year ; now, Sir Alexander, that 



144 Stories From Scottish History 

must concern either you or me, since we two are 
the only kings in Scotland." Other circum- 
stances occurred, which might have prevented 
the good King's murder, but none of them were 
attended to. The King, while at Perth, took up 
his residence in an abbey of Black Friars, there 
being no castle or palace in the town convenient 
for his residence ; and this made the execution of 
the conspiracy more easy, as his guards, and the 
officers of his household, were quartered among 
the citizens. 

The day had been spent by the King in sport 
and feasting, and by the conspirators in prepar- 
ing for their enterprise. They had destroyed the 
locks of the doors of the apartment, so that the 
keys could not be turned ; and they had taken 
away the bars with which the gates were secured, 
and had provided planks by way of bridges, on 
which to cross the ditch which surrounded the 
monastery. At length, on the 20th February, 
1437, all was prepared for carrying their treason- 
able purpose into execution, and Graham came 
from his hiding-place in the neighboring moun- 
tains, with a party of nigh three hundred men, 
and entered the gardens of the convent. 

The King was in his night-gown and slippers. 
He had passed the evening gaily with the nobles 



The Poet King 145 

and ladies of his court, in reading romances, and 
in singing and music, or playing at chess and 
tables. The Earl of Athole, and his son Sir 
Robert Stewart, who expected to succeed James 
on the throne, were among the last courtiers who 
retired. At this time James remained standing 
before the fire, and conversing gaily with the 
queen and her ladies before he went to rest. 
The Highland woman before mentioned again 
demanded permission to speak with the King, 
but was refused, on account of the untimeliness 
of the hour. All now were ordered to withdraw. 
At this moment there was a noise and clash- 
ing heard, as of men in armor, and the torches in 
the garden cast up great flashes of light against 
the windows. The King then recollected his 
deadly enemy, Sir Robert Graham, and guessed 
that he was coming to murder him. He called 
to the ladies who were left in the chamber to 
keep the door as well as they could, in order to 
give him time to escape. He first tried to get 
out at the windows, but they were fast barred, 
and defied his strength. By help of the tongs, 
which were in the chimney, he raised, however, a 
plank of the flooring of the apartment, and let 
himself down into a narrow vault beneath, used 
as a common sewer. This vault had formerly 



146 Stories From Scottish History 

had an opening into the court of the convent, by 
which he might have made his escape. But all 
things turned against the unfortunate James ; for, 
only three days before, he had caused the open- 
ing to be built up, because when he played at 
ball in the courtyard, the ball used to roll into 
the vault through that hole. 

While the King was in this place of conceal- 
ment, the conspirators were seeking him from 
chamber to chamber throughout the convent, 
and, at length, came to the room where the ladies 
were. The Queen and her women endeavored, 
as well as they might, to keep the door shut, and 
one of them, Catherine Douglas, boldly thrust 
her own arm across the door, instead of the bar, 
which had been taken away, as I told you. But 
the brave lady's arm was soon broken, and the 
traitors rushed into the room with swords and 
daggers drawn, hurting and throwing down such 
of the women as opposed them. The poor Queen 
stood half undressed, shrieking aloud ; and one 
of the brutal assassins attacked, wounded, and 
would have slain her, had it not been for a son 
of Sir Robert Graham, who said to him, " What 
would you do to the Queen ? She is but a woman 
— Let us seek the King." 

They accordingly commenced a minute search, 



The Poet King 147 

but without any success ; so they left the apart- 
ment, and sought elsewhere about the monastery. 
In the meanwhile the King turned impatient, and 
desired the ladies to bring sheets and draw him 
up out of the inconvenient lurking-place. At 
this unlucky moment the conspirators returned. 
One of them now recollected that there was such 
a vault, and that they had not searched it. And 
when they tore up the plank they saw King 
James. Then, first one, and then another of the 
villains, brethren of the name of Hall, descended 
into the vault, with daggers drawn, to despatch 
the unfortunate King, who was standing there in 
his shirt, without weapons of any kind. But 
James, who was an active and strong man, threw 
them both down beneath his feet, and struggled 
to wrest the dagger from one or other of them, 
in which attempt his hands were severely cut and 
mangled. The murderers also were so vigorously 
handled, that the marks of the King's gripe were 
visible on their throats for weeks afterward. 
Then Sir Robert Graham himself sprang down 
on the King, who, finding no further defence pos- 
sible, asked him for mercy, and for leisure to con- 
fess his sins to a priest. But Graham replied 
fiercely, " Thou never hadst mercy on those of 
thine own blood, nor on any one else, therefore 



148 Stories From Scottish History 

thou shalt find no mercy here; and as for a con- 
fessor thou shalt have none but this sword." So 
speaking, he thrust the sword through the King's 
body. And yet it is said, that when he saw his 
prince lying bleeding under his feet, he was de- 
sirous to have left the enterprise unfinished ; but 
the other conspirators called on Graham to kill 
the King, otherwise he should himself die by their 
hands ; upon which Graham, with the two men 
who had descended into the vault before him, fell 
on the unhappy Prince with their daggers, and 
slew him by many stabs. There were sixteen 
wounds in his breast alone. 

By this time, but too late, news of this outrage 
had reached the town, and the household serv- 
ants of the King, with the people inhabiting the 
town of Perth, were hastening to the rescue, with 
torches and weapons. The traitors accordingly 
caught the alarm, and retreated into the High- 
lands, losing in their flight only one or two, taken 
or slain by the pursuers. When they spoke about 
their enterprise among themselves, they greatly 
regretted that they had not killed the Queen 
along with her husband, fearing that she would 
be active and inexorable in her vengeance. 

Indeed their apprehensions were justified by 
the event, for Queen Joanna made so strict search 



The Poet K 



in 



g H9 



after the villainous assassins, that in the course 
of a month most of them were thrown into prison, 
and being tried and condemned, they were put 
to death. 

The people of Scotland generally, were much 
incensed against the murderers ; for, although 
they had murmured against King James while he 
lived, yet the dismal manner of his death, and the 
general feeling that his intentions toward his peo- 
ple were kind and just, caused him to be much 
regretted. He had also many popular qualities. 
His face was handsome, and his person strong and 
active. His mind was well cultivated with orna- 
mental and elegant accomplishments, as well as 
stored with useful information. He understood 
music and poetry, and wrote verses, both serious 
and comic. Two of his compositions are still 
preserved, and read with interest and entertain- 
ment by those who understand the ancient lan- 
guage in which they are written. One of these 
is called " The King's Quhair," that is, the King's 
Book. It is a love poem, composed when he was 
a prisoner in England, and addressed to the 
Princess Joanna of Somerset, whom he afterward 
married. The other is a comic poem, called 
" Christ's Kirk on the Green," in which the author 
gives an account of a merry-making of the coun- 



150 Stories From Scottish History 

try people, held for the purpose of sport, where 
they danced, reveled, drank, and finally quarreled 
and fought. There is much humor shown in this 
piece, though one would think the subject a 
strange one for a king to write upon. He par- 
ticularly ridicules the Scots for want of acquaint- 
ance with archery. One man breaks his bow, 
another shoots his arrow wide of the mark, a 
third hits the man's body at whom he took aim, 
but with so little effect that he cannot pierce his 
leathern doublet. There is a meaning in this 
raillery. James I, seeing the advantage which the 
English possessed by their archery, was desirous 
to introduce that exercise more generally into Scot- 
land, and ordered regular meetings to be held for 
this purpose. Perhaps he might hope to enforce 
these orders, by employing a little wholesome rail- 
lery on the awkwardness of the Scottish bowmen. 
On the whole, James I was much and deserv- 
edly lamented. The murderer Graham was so 
far from being remembered with honor, as he had 
expected, for the assassination which he had com- 
mitted, that his memory was execrated in a pop- 
ular rhyme, then generally current : 

" Robert Graham, 
That slew our king, 
God give him shame ! " 



CHAPTER XIX 
JAMES II AND THE BLACK DOUGLASSES 

I. AT EDINBURGH CASTLE 

Edinburgh castle, toun and tour, 

God grant you sink for sin; 
And that even for the black dinnour 

Earl Douglas got therein. < 

— Old Rhyme. 

WHEN James I was murdered, his son 
and heir, James II, was only six years 
old ; so that Scotland was plunged 
into all the discord and confusions of a regency. 
The affairs of the kingdom, during the minority 
of James II, were chiefly managed by two states- 
men, who seem to have been men of consider- 
able personal talent, but very little principle or 
integrity. Sir Alexander Livingston was guard- 
ian of the King's person ; Sir William Crichton 
was Chancellor of the kingdom. They debated 
between themselves the degree of authority at- 
tached to their respective offices, and at once 
engaged in quarrels with each other, and with 
one who was more powerful than either of them 
— the great Earl of Douglas. 
151 



152 Stories From Scottish History 

That mighty house was now at the highest 
pitch of its greatness. The Earl possessed Gal- 
loway, Annandale, and other extensive properties 
in the south of Scotland, where almost all the 
inferior nobility and gentry acknowledged him 
as their patron and lord. Thus the Douglasses 
had at their disposal that part of Scotland, which 
from its constant wars with England was most 
disciplined and accustomed to arms. They pos- 
sessed the duchy of Touraine and lordship of 
Longueville in France, and they were connected 
by intermarriage with the Scottish royal family. 

The Douglasses were not only powerful from 
the extent of lands and territories, but also from 
the possession of great military talents, which 
seemed to pass from father to son, and occa- 
sioned a proverb, still remembered in Scotland, — 

" So many, so good, as of the Douglasses have been, 
Of one sirname in Scotland never yet were seen." 

Unfortunately, their power, courage, and mili- 
tary skill, were attended with arrogance and 
ambition, and the Douglasses seemed to have 
claimed to themselves the rank and authority of 
sovereign princes, independent of the laws of the 
country, and of the allegiance due to the mon- 
arch. It was a common thing for them to ride 



James II and the Black Douglasses 153 

with a retinue of a thousand horse ; and as Archi- 
bald, the Earl of Douglas of the time, rendered 
but an imperfect allegiance even to the severe 
rule of James I, it might be imagined that his 
power could not be easily restrained by such 
men as Crichton and Livingston — great indeed, 
through the high offices which they held, but 
otherwise of a degree far inferior to that of 
Douglas. 

But when this powerful nobleman died, in 1439, 
and was succeeded by his son William, a youth 
of only sixteen years old, the wily Crichton began 
to spy an occasion to crush the Douglasses, as he 
hoped, forever, by the destruction of the youth- 
ful earl and his brother, and for abating, by this 
cruel and unmerited punishment, the power and 
pride of this great family. Crichton proposed to 
Livingston to join him in this meditated treach- 
ery ; and, though enemies to each other, the 
guardian of the King and the Chancellor of the 
kingdom united in the vile project of cutting off 
two boys, whose age alone showed their inno- 
cence of the guilt charged upon them. For this 
purpose flattery and fair words were used to in- 
duce the young Earl, and his brother David, with 
some of their nearest friends, to come to court, 
where it was pretended that they would be suit- 



1^4 Stories From Scottish History 

able companions and intimates for the young 
king. An old adherent of the family greatly 
dissuaded the Earl from accepting this invitation, 
and exhorted him, if he went to Edinburgh in 
person, to leave at least his brother David behind 
him. But the unhappy youth, thinking that no 
treachery was intended, could not be diverted 
from the fatal journey. 

The Chancellor Crichton received the Earl of 
Douglas and his brother on their journey, at his 
own castle of Crichton, and with the utmost 
appearance of hospitality and kindness. After 
remaining a day or two at this place, the two 
brothers were inveigled to Edinburgh Castle, and 
introduced to the young King, who, not know- 
ing the further purpose of his guardians, received 
them with affability, and seemed delighted with 
the prospect of enjoying their society. 

On a sudden the scene began to change. At 
an entertainment which was served up to the 
Earl and his brother, the head of a black bull was 
placed on the table. The Douglasses knew this, 
according to a custom which prevailed in Scot- 
land, to be the sign of death, and leaped from 
the table in great dismay. But they were seized 
by armed men who entered the apartment. They 
underwent a mock trial, in which all the inso- 



James II and the Black Douglasses 155 

lences of their ancestors were charged against 
them, and were condemned to immediate execu- 
tion. The young King wept, and implored 
Livingston and Cnchton to show mercy to the 
young noblemen, but in vain. These cruel men 
only reproved him for weeping at the death of 
those whom they called his enemies. The brothers 
were led out to the court of the castle, and be- 
headed without delay. 

This barbarous proceeding was as unwise as it 
was unjust. It did not reduce the power of the 
Douglasses, but only raised general detestation 
against those who managed the affairs of James 
II. A fat, quiet, peaceable person, called James 
the Gross, indolent from habit of body and 
temper of mind, next became Earl of Douglas, 
which was probably the reason that no public 
commotion immediately attended on the murder 
of the hapless brothers. But this corpulent dig- 
nitary lived only two years, and was in his turn 
succeeded by his son William, who was as active 
and turbulent as any of his ambitious predeces- 
sors, and engaged in various civil broils for the 
purpose of revenging the death of his kinsmen. 



156 Stories From Scottish History 

II. AT THRIEVE 

Whence should ye o'er gentle spirits 
Such o'ermastering power achieve ? 
Workers of high-handed outrage ! 
Making King and people grieve, 
O the lawless lords of Galloway ! 
O the bloody towers of thrieve ! 

— Shairp. 



James II, in the early part of his reign, con- 
ferred on William, Earl of Douglas, the impor- 
tant post of lieutenant-general of Scotland. But 
that ambitious nobleman was soon disposed to 
extend his authority to independent power, and 
the King found it necessary to take from him the 
dangerous office with which he had intrusted 
him. Douglas retired to his own castle medi- 
tating revenge ; while the King, on the other 
hand, looked around him for some fitting oppor- 
tunity of diminishing the power of so formidable 
a rival. 

Douglas was not long of showing his total con- 
tempt of the King's authority, and his power of 
acting for himself. — One of his friends and fol- 
lowers, named Auchinleck, had been slain by the 
Lord Colville. The criminal certainly deserved 
punishment, but it ought to have been inflicted 
by the regular magistrates of the crown, not by 
the arbitrary pleasure of a private baron, how- 



James II and the Black Douglasses 157 

ever great and powerful. Douglas, however, 
took up the matter as a wrong done to himself, 
and revenged it by his own authority. He 
marched a large body of his forces against the 
Lord Colville, stormed his castle, and put every 
person within it to death. The King was unable 
to avenge this insult to his authority. 

But a still more flagrant breach of law, and 
violation of all respect to the King's authority, 
happened in the case of Maclellan, the tutor, or 
guardian of the young lord of Bomby, ancestor 
of the Earls of Kirkcudbright. This was one of 
the few men of consequence in Galloway, who, 
defying the threats of the Earl of Douglas, had 
refused to join with him against the King. The 
Earl, incensed at his opposition, suddenly as- 
saulted his castle, made him a prisoner, and car- 
ried him to the strong fortress of Thrieve, in Gal- 
loway, situated on an island in the river Dee. 
The King took a particular interest in Maclellan s 
fate, the rather that he was petitioned to interfere 
in his favor by a personal favorite of his own. 
This was Sir Patrick Gray, the commander of the 
royal guard, a gentleman much in James's con- 
fidence, and constantly attending on his person, 
and who was Maclellan's near relative, being his 
uncle on the mother's side. In order to prevent 



158 Stories From Scottish History 

Maclellan from sharing the fate of Colville and 
Herries, the King wrote a letter to the Earl of 
Douglas, entreating as a favor, rather than urging 
as a command, that he would deliver the person 
of the Tutor of Bomby, as Maclellan was usually 
entitled, into the hands of his relative, Sir Pat- 
rick Gray. 

Sir Patrick himself went with the letter to the 
castle of Thrieve. Douglas received him just as 
he had arisen from dinner, and, with much ap- 
parent civility, declined to speak with Gray, on 
the occasion of his coming, until Sir Patrick also 
had dined, saying, " It was ill talking between a 
full man and a fasting." But this courtesy was 
only a pretence to gain time to do a very cruel 
and lawless action. Guessing that Sir Patrick 
Gray's visit respected the life of Maclellan, he 
resolved to hasten his execution before opening 
the King's letter. Thus, while he was feasting 
Sir Patrick, with every appearance of hospitality, 
he caused his unhappy kinsman to be led out, 
and beheaded in the courtyard of the castle. 

When dinner was over, Gray presented the 
King's letter, which Douglas received and read 
over with every testimony of profound respect. 
He then thanked Sir Patrick for the trouble he 
had taken in bringing him so gracious a letter 



James II and the Black Douglasses 159 

from his Sovereign, especially considering he was 
not at present on good terms with his Majesty. 
" And, " he added, " the King's demand shall in- 
stantly be granted, the rather for your sake." 
The Earl then took Sir Patrick by the hand, and 
led him to the castleyard, where the body of 
Maclellan was still lying. 

" Sir Patrick," said he, as his servants removed 
the bloody cloth which covered the body, " you 
have come a little too late. There lies your 
sister's son — but he wants the head. The body 
is, however, at your service." 

" My lord," said Gray, suppressing his indig- 
nation, " if you have taken his head, you may 
dispose of the body as you will." 

But, when he had mounted his horse, which he 
instantly called for, his resentment broke out, in 
spite of the dangerous situation in which he was 
placed : — 

" My lord," said he, " if I live, you shall bitterly 
pay for this day's work." 

So saying, he turned his horse and galloped off. 

" To horse, and chase him ! " said Douglas ; 
and if Gray had not been well mounted, he 
would, in all probability, have shared the fate of 
his nephew. He was closely pursued till near 
Edinburgh, a space of fifty or sixty miles. 



160 Stories From Scottish History 

III. — AT STIRLING 

The body to its place, and the soul to heaven's grace, 
And the rest in God's own time. 

—Scott. 

Besides these daring and open instances of 
contempt of the King's authority, Douglas en- 
tered into such alliances as plainly showed his 
determination to destroy entirely the royal gov- 
ernment. He formed a league with the Earl of 
Crawford, called Earl Beardie, and sometimes, 
from the ferocity of his temper, the Tiger-Earl, 
who had great power in the counties of Angus, 
Perth, and Kincardine, and with the Earl of Ross, 
who possessed extensive and almost royal author- 
ity in the north of Scotland, by which these three 
powerful earls agreed that they should take each 
other's part in every quarrel, and against every 
man, the King himself not excepted. 

James then plainly saw that some strong meas- 
ures must be taken, yet it was not easy to deter- 
mine what was to be done. The league between 
the three earls enabled them, if open war was at- 
tempted, to assemble a force superior to that of 
the crown. The King, therefore, dissembled his 
resentment, and, under pretext of desiring an 
amicable conference and reconciliation, requested 
Douglas to come to the royal court at Stirling. 



James II and the Black Douglasses 161 

The haughty Earl hesitated not to accept of this 
invitation, but before he actually did so, he de- 
manded and obtained a protection, or safe con- 
duct, under the great seal, pledging the King's 
promise that he should be permitted to come to 
the court and to return in safety. 

Thus protected, as he thought, against personal 
danger, Douglas came to Stirling in the end of 
February, 1452, where he found the King lodged 
in the castle of that place, which is situated upon 
a rock rising abruptly from the plain, at the upper 
end of the town, and only accessible by one gate, 
which is strongly defended. The numerous fol- 
lowers of Douglas were quartered in the town, 
but the Earl himself was admitted into the castle. 
One of his nearest confidants, and most powerful 
allies, was James Hamilton of Cadyow, the head 
of the great house of Hamilton. This gentleman 
pressed forward to follow Douglas, as he entered 
the gate. But Livingston, who was in the castle, 
with the King, thrust back Hamilton, who was 
his near relation, and struck him upon the face ; 
and when Hamilton, greatly incensed, rushed on 
him, sword in hand, he repulsed him with a long 
lance, till the gates were shut against him. Sir 
James Hamilton was very angry at this usage at 
the time, but afterward knew that Livingston 



ib'i Stories From Scottish History 

acted a friendly part in excluding him from the 
danger into which Douglas was throwing him- 
self. 

The King received Douglas kindly, and, after 
some amicable expostulation with him upon his 
late conduct, all seemed friendship and cordiality 
between James and his too-powerful subject. 
By invitation of James, Douglas dined with him 
on the day following. Supper was presented at 
seven o'clock, and after it was over, the King 
having led Douglas into another apartment, 
where only some of the privy council and of his 
body-guard were in attendance, he introduced the 
subject of the Earl's bond with Ross and Craw- 
ford, and exhorted him to give up the engage- 
ment, as inconsistent with his allegiance and the 
quiet of the kingdom. Douglas declined to re- 
linquish the treaty which he had formed. The 
King urged him more imperiously, and the Earl 
returned a haughty and positive refusal, upbraid- 
ing the King, at the same time, with mal-admin- 
istration of the public affairs. Then the King 
burst into a rage at his obstinacy, and exclaimed, 
" By Heaven, my lord, if you will not break the 
league, this shall." So saying, he stabbed the 
Earl with his dagger first in the throat, and in- 
stantly after in the lower part of the body. Sir 



James II and the Black Douglasses 163 

Patrick Gray, who had sworn revenge on Doug- 
las for the execution of Maclellan, then struck 
the Earl on the head with a battle-axe ; and 
others of the King's retinue showed their zeal by 
stabbing at the dying man with their knives and 
daggers. He expired without uttering a word, 
covered with twenty-six wounds. The corpse 
did not receive any Christian burial. At least, 
about forty years since, a skeleton was found 
buried in the garden, just below the fatal window, 
which was, with much probability, conjectured to 
be the remains of the Earl of Douglas, who died 
thus strangely and unhappily by the hand of his 
Sovereign. 

This was a wicked and cruel action on the 
King's part ; bad if it were done in hasty passion, 
and yet worse if James meditated the possibility 
of this violence from the beginning, and had de- 
termined to use force if Douglas should not yield 
to persuasion. The Earl had deserved punish- 
ment, perhaps even that of death, for many 
crimes against the state ; but the King ought not 
to have slain him without form of trial, and in his 
own chamber, after decoying him thither under 
assurance that his person should be safe. 

The scene, however, opened very differently 
from the manner in which it was to end. There 



164 Stories From Scottish History- 
were in the town of Stirling four brethren of the 
murdered Douglas, who had come to wait on him 
to court. Upon hearing that their elder brother 
had died in the manner I have told you, they 
immediately acknowledged James, the eldest of 
the four, as his successor in the earldom. They 
then hastened each to the country where he had 
interest (for they were all great lords), and, col- 
lecting their friends and vassals, they returned to 
Stirling, dragging the safe conduct, or passport, 
which had been granted to the Earl of Douglas, 
at the tail of a miserable cart-jade, in order to 
show their contempt for the King. They next, 
with the sound of five hundred horns and trumpets, 
proclaimed King James a false and perjured man. 
Afterward they pillaged the town of Stirling, and, 
not thinking that enough, they sent back Ham- 
ilton of Cadyow to burn it to the ground. But 
the strength of the castle defied all their efforts, 
and after this bravado, the Douglasses dispersed 
themselves. 

IV. AT ROXBURGH CASTLE 

The Prince laid low in manhood's prime. 

The strong Border castle of Roxburgh was in 
the hands of the English, but, in 1460, the King 



James II and the Black Douglasses 165 

determined to recover this bulwark of the king- 
dom. Breaking through a truce which existed 
with England at the time, James summoned to- 
gether the full force of his kingdom to accom- 
plish this great enterprise. The nobles attended 
in numbers, and well accompanied, at the sum- 
mons of a prince who was always respected, and 
generally successful in his military undertakings. 

Roxburgh Castle was situated on an eminence 
near the junction of the Tweed and the Teviot; 
the waters of the Teviot, raised by a damhead or 
wear, flowed round the fortress, and its walls were 
as strong as the engineers of the time could raise. 
On former occasions it had been taken by strata- 
gem, but James was now to proceed by a regular 
siege. 

With this purpose he established a battery of 
such large clumsy cannon as were constructed at 
that time, upon the north side of the river Tweed. 
The siege had lasted some time, and the army 
began to be weary of the undertaking, when they 
received new spirit from the arrival of the Earl 
of Huntly with a gallant body of fresh troops. 
The King, out of joy at these succors, commanded 
his artillery to fire a volley upon the castle, and 
stood near the cannon himself, to mark the effect 
of the shot. The great guns of that period were 



l66 Stories From Scottish History 

awkwardly framed out of bars of iron, fastened 
together by hoops of the same metal, somewhat 
in the same manner in which barrels are now 
made. They were, therefore, far more liable to 
accidents than modern cannon, which are cast in 
one entire solid piece, and then bored hollow by 
a machine. One of these ill-made guns burst in 
going off. A fragment of iron broke James's 
thigh-bone, and killed him on the spot. Another 
splinter wounded the Earl of Angus. No other 
person sustained injury, though many stood 
around. Thus died James the Second of Scot- 
land, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, on the 
3d August, 1460. 

This King did not possess the elegant accom- 
plishments of his father; and the manner in 
which he slew the Earl of Douglas must be ad- 
mitted as a stain upon his reputation. Yet he 
was, upon the whole, a good prince, and was 
greatly lamented by his subjects. 

Upon the lamentable death of James II, the 
army which lay before Roxburgh was greatly 
discouraged, and seemed about to raise the siege. 
But Mary, the widow of their slain monarch, ap- 
peared in their council of war, leading her eldest 
son, a child of eight years old, who was the suc- 
cessor to the crown, and spoke to them these 



James II and the Black Douglasses 167 

gallant words : " Fie, my noble lords ! think not 
now shamefully to give up an enterprise which is 
so bravely begun, or to abandon the revenge of 
this unhappy accident which has befallen before 
this ill-omened castle. Forward, my brave lords, 
and persevere in your undertaking ; and never 
turn your backs till this siege is victoriously 
ended. Let it not be said that such brave cham- 
pions needed to hear from a woman, and a wid- 
owed one, the courageous advice and comfort 
which she ought rather to receive from you ! " 
The Scottish nobles received this heroic address 
with shouts of applause, and persevered in the 
siege of Roxburgh Castle, until the garrison, re- 
ceiving no relief, were obliged to surrender the 
place through famine. 



CHAPTER XX 
A KING'S FEARS 

O, that a mighty man, of such descent, 
Of such possessions, and so high esteem, 
Should be infused with so foul a spirit ! 

— Shakespeare. 

KING JAMES III was timorous, a great 
failing in a warlike age ; and his coward- 
ice made him suspicious of his nobility, 
and particularly of his two brothers. He was 
fond of money, and therefore did not use that 
generosity toward his powerful subjects which 
was necessary to secure their attachment ; but, on 
the contrary, endeavored to increase his private 
hoards of wealth by encroaching upon the rights 
both of clergy and laity, and thus made himself 
at once hated and contemptible. He was a lover 
of the fine arts, as they are called, of music and 
architecture ; a disposition graceful in a monarch, 
if exhibited with due regard to his dignity. But 
he made architects and musicians his principal 
companions, excluding his nobility from the per- 
sonal familiarity to which he admitted those 
168 



A King's Fears 169 

whom the haughty barons of Scotland termed 
masons and fiddlers. Cochran, an architect, 
Rogers, a musician, Leonard, a smith, Hommel, 
a tailor, and Torphichen, a fencing-master, were 
his counselors and companions. These habits of 
low society excited the hatred of the nobility, 
who began to make comparisons between the 
King and his two brothers, the Dukes of Albany 
and Mar, greatly to the disadvantage of James. 

These younger sons of James the Second were 
of appearance and manners such as were then 
thought most suited to their royal birth. Both 
princes excelled in the military exercis^fcof tilting, 
hunting, hawking, and other personal accomplish- 
ments, for which their brother, the King, was 
unfit, by taste, or from timidity, although they 
were in those times reckoned indispensable to a 
man of rank. 

Perhaps some excuse for the King's fears may 
be found in the turbulent disposition of the Scot- 
tish nobles, who often nourished schemes of am- 
bition, which they endeavored to gratify by ex- 
ercising a control over the King's person. The 
following incident may serve to show you the 
manners of the Scottish Kings, and the fears 
which James entertained for the enterprises of 
the nobility. 



170 Stories From Scottish History 

About the year 1474, Lord Somerville being 
in attendance upon the King's court, James III 
offered to come and visit him at his castle of 
Cowthally, near the town of Carnwath, where he 
then lived in all the rude hospitality of the time, 
for which this nobleman was peculiarly remark- 
able. It was his custom, when, being from home, 
he intended to return to the castle with a party 
of guests, merely to write the words, Speates and 
raxes ; that is, spits and ranges ; meaning by this 
hint that there should be a great quantity of food 
prepared, and that the spits and ranges, or frame- 
work on which they turn, should be put into 
employment. Even the visit of the King him- 
self did not induce Lord Somerville to send any 
other than his usual intimation ; only he repeated 
it three times, and despatched it to his castle by 
a special messenger. The paper was delivered 
to the Lady Somerville, who, having been lately 
married, was not quite accustomed to read her 
husband's handwriting, which probably was not 
very good ; for in those times noblemen used the 
sword more than the pen. So the lady sent for 
the steward, and, after laying their heads together, 
instead of reading Speates and raxes, speates and 
raxes, speates and raxes ; they made out the 
writing to be Spears and jacks, spears and jacks, 



A King's Fears 171 

spears and jacks. Jacks were a sort of leathern 
doublet, covered with plates of iron, worn as 
armor by horsemen of inferior rank. They con- 
cluded the meaning of these terrible words to 
be, that Lord Somerville was in some distress, 
or engaged in some quarrel in Edinburgh, and 
wanted assistance ; so that, instead of killing 
cattle and preparing for a feast, they collected 
armed men together, and got ready for a fray. 
A party of two hundred horsemen were speedily 
assembled, and were trotting over the moors 
toward Edinburgh, when they observed a large 
company o{ gentlemen employed in the sport of 
hawking, on the side of Corsett-hill. This was 
the King and Lord Somerville, who were on 
their road to Cowthally, taking their sport as 
they went along. The appearance of a numer- 
ous body of armed men soon turned their game 
to earnest; and the King, who saw the Lord 
Somerville's banner at the head of the troop, con- 
cluded it was some rebellious enterprise against 
his person, and charged the baron with treason. 
Lord Somerville declared his innocence. " Yon- 
der," said he, " are indeed my men and my 
banner, but I have no knowledge whatever of 
the cause that has brought them here. But if 
your grace will permit me to ride forward, I will 



172 Stories From Scottish History 

soon see the cause of this disturbance. In the 
meantime, let my eldest son and heir remain as 
an hostage in your grace's power, and let him 
lose his head if I prove false to my duty." The 
King accordingly permitted Lord Somerville to 
ride toward his followers, when the matter was 
soon explained by those who commanded them. 
The mistake was then only subject of merriment ; 
for the King, looking at the letter, protested he 
himself would have read it Spears and jacks, 
rather than Speates and raxes. When they came 
to Covvthally, the lady was much out of coun- 
tenance at the mistake. But the King greatly 
praised her for the despatch which she had used 
in raising men to assist her husband, and said 
he hoped she would always have as brave a band 
at his service, when the King and kingdom re- 
quired them. And thus everything went happily 
off. 

It was natural that a prince of a timid, and 
at the same time a severe disposition, such as 
James III seems to have had, should see with 
anxiety the hold which his brothers possessed 
over the hearts of his subjects ; and the insinua- 
tions of the unworthy familiars of his private 
hours turned that anxiety and suspicion into 
deadly and implacable hatred. Various causes 



A King's Fears 173 

combined to induce the mean and obscure favor- 
ites of James to sow enmity between him and his 
brothers. 

They informed him that the Earl of Mar had 
consulted witches when and how the King should 
die, and that it had been answered that he should 
fall by means of his nearest relations. They 
brought to James also an astrologer, that is, a 
man who pretended to calculate future events by 
the motion of the stars, who told him, that in 
Scotland a lion should be killed by his own 
whelps. All these things wrought on the jealous 
and timid disposition of the King, so that he 
seized upon both his brethren. Albany was im- 
prisoned in the castle of Edinburgh, but Mar's 
fate was instantly decided ; the King caused him 
to be murdered by stifling him in a bath, or, as 
other historians say, by causing him to be bled 
to death. James committed this horrid crime, 
in order to avoid dangers which were in a great 
measure imaginary; but we shall find that the 
death of his brother Mar rather endangered than 
added to his safety. 

Albany was in danger of the same fate, but 
some of his friends in France or Scotland had 
formed a plan of rescuing him. A small sloop 
came into the road-stead of Leith, loaded with 



174 Stories From Scottish History 

wine of Gascony, and two small barrels were sent 
up as a present to the imprisoned prince. The 
guard having suffered the casks to be carried to 
Albany's chamber, the duke, examining them in 
private, found that one of them contained a roll 
of wax, enclosing a letter, exhorting him to make 
his escape, and promising that the little vessel 
which brought the wine should be ready to re- 
ceive him if he could gain the waterside. The 
letter conjured him to be speedy, as there was a 
purpose to behead him on the day following. A 
coil of ropes was also enclosed in the same cask, 
in order to enable him to effect his descent from 
the castle wall, and the precipice upon which it 
is built. There was a faithful attendant, his 
chamberlain, imprisoned with him in the same 
apartment, who promised to assist his master in 
this perilous undertaking. The first point was to 
secure the captain of the guard ; for which pur- 
pose Albany invited that officer to sup with him, 
in order, as the duke pretended, to taste the good 
wine which had been presented to him in the two 
casks. The captain accordingly, having placed 
his watches where he thought there was danger, 
came to the duke's chamber, attended by three 
of his soldiers, and partook of a collation. After 
supper, the duke engaged him in playing at 






A King's Fears 175 

tables and dice, until the captain, seated beside a 
hot fire, and plied with wine by the chamberlain, 
began to grow drowsy, as did his attendants, on 
whom the liquor had not been spared. Then the 
Duke of Albany, a strong man and desperate, 
leaped from table, and stabbed the captain with a 
whinger or dagger, so that he died on the spot. 
The like he did to two of the captain's men, and 
the chamberlain despatched the other, and threw 
their bodies on the fire. This was the more 
easily accomplished as the soldiers were intoxi- 
cated and stupefied. They then took the keys 
from the captain's pocket, and, getting out upon 
the walls, chose a retired corner, out of the watch- 
man's sight, to make their perilous descent. The 
chamberlain tried to go down the rope first, but 
it was too short, so w.at he fell and broke his 
thigh-bone. He then called to his master to 
make the rope longer. Albany returned to his 
apartment, and took the sheets from the bed, 
with which he lengthened the rope, so that he 
descended the precipice in safety. He then got 
his chamberlain on his back, and conveyed him 
to a place of security, and went himself to the 
seaside, when, upon the appointed signal, a boat 
came ashore and took him off to the vessel, in 
which he sailed for France. 



176 Stories From Scottish History 

During the night, the guards, who knew that 
their officer was in the duke's apartment with 
three men, could not but suppose that all was 
safe ; but when daylight showed them the rope 
hanging from the walls, they became alarmed, 
and hastened to the duke's lodgings. Here they 
found the body of one man stretched near the 
door, and the corpses of the captain and other 
two lying upon the fire. The King was much 
surprised at so strange an escape, and would give 
no credit to it till he had examined the place with 
his own eyes. 



CHAPTER XXI 
COCHRAN AND BELL-THE-CAT 

Choose out the man to put this peril on 
And gird him with this glory. 

THE death of Mar, and the flight of Al- 
bany, increased the insolence of King 
James's unworthy favorites. Robert 
Cochran, the mason, rose into great power, and 
as every man's petition to the King came through 
his hands, and he expected and received bribes 
to give his countenance, he amassed so much 
wealth, that he was able in his turn to bribe the 
King to confer on him the earldom of Mar, with 
the lands and revenues of the deceased Prince. 
All men were filled with indignation to see the 
inheritance of the murdered earl, the son of the 
King of Scotland, conferred upon a mean upstart, 
like this Cochran. This unworthy favorite was 
guilty of another piece of mal-administration, by 
mixing the silver coin of the kingdom with brass 
and lead, and thereby decreasing its real value, 
while orders were given by proclamation to take 
it at the same rate as if it were composed of pure 
177 



178 Stories From Scottish History 

silver. The people refused to sell their corn and 
other commodities for this debased coin, which 
introduced great distress, confusion, and scarcity. 
Some one told Cochran, that this money should 
be called in, and good coin issued in its stead ; 
but he was so confident of the currency of the 
Cochran-placks, as the people called them, that 
he said, — " The day I am hanged they may be 
called in ; not sooner." This speech, which he 
made in jest, proved true in reality. 

At length, in 1482, a great number of the no- 
bility and barons held a secret council in the 
church of Lauder, where they enlarged upon the 
evils which Scotland sustained through the inso- 
lence and corruption of Cochran and his associates. 
While they were thus declaiming, Lord Gray re- 
quested their attention to a fable. " The mice," 
he said, " being much annoyed by the persecu- 
tion of the cat, resolved that a bell should be 
hung about puss's neck, to give notice when she 
was coming. But though the measure was agreed 
to in full council, it could not be carried into 
effect, because no mouse had courage enough to 
undertake to tie the bell to the neck of the for- 
midable enemy." This was as much as to inti- 
mate his opinion, that though the discontented 
nobles might make bold resolutions against the 



Cochran and Bell-the-Cat 179 

King's ministers, yet it would be difficult to find 
any one courageous enough to act upon them. 

Archibald, Earl of Angus, a man of gigantic 
strength and intrepid courage, and head of that 
second family of Douglas whom I before men- 
tioned, started up when Gray had done speaking. 
" I am he," he said, " who will bell the cat ; " 
from which expression he was distinguished by 
the name of Bell-the-Cat to his dying day. 

While thus engaged, a loud authoritative 
knocking was heard at the door of the church. 
This announced the arrival of Cochran, attended 
by a guard of three hundred men, attached to his 
own person, and all gaily dressed in his livery of 
white, with black facings, and armed with parti- 
sans. His own personal appearance corresponded 
with this magnificent attendance. He was attired 
in a riding suit of black velvet, and had round his 
neck a fine chain of gold, whilst a bugle-horn, 
tipped and mounted with gold, hung down by 
his side. His helmet was borne before him, richly 
inlaid with the same precious metal ; even his 
tent and tent-cords were of silk, instead of ordi- 
dinary materials. In this gallant guise, having 
learned there was some council holding among 
the nobility, he came to see what they were 
doing, and it was with this purpose that he 



180 Stories From Scottish History 

knocked furiously at the door of the church. Sir 
Robert Douglas of Lochleven, who had the 
charge of watching the door, demanded who was 
there. When Cochran answered, " The Earl of 
Mar," the nobles greatly rejoiced at hearing he 
was come, to deliver himself, as it were, into their 
hands. 

As Cochran entered the church, Angus, to 
make good his promise to bell the cat, met him, 
and rudely pulled the gold chain from his neck, 
saying, " A halter would better become him." 
Sir Robert Douglas, at the same time, snatched 
away his bugle-horn, saying, " Thou hast been a 
hunter of mischief too long." 

" Is this jest or earnest, my lords ?" said Coch- 
ran, more astonished than alarmed at this rude 
reception. 

" It is sad earnest," said they, " and that you 
and thy accomplices shall feel ; for you have 
abused the King's favor toward you, and now 
you shall have your reward according to your 
deserts." 

It does not appear that Cochran or his guards 
offered any resistance. A part of the nobility 
went next to the King's pavilion, and, while some 
engaged him in conversation, others seized upon 
Leonard, Hommel, Torphichen, and the rest, with 



Cochran and Bell-the-Cat 181 

Preston, one of the only two gentlemen among 
King James's minions, and hastily condemned 
them to instant death, as having misled the King, 
and misgoverned the kingdom. The only per- 
son who escaped was John Ramsay of Balmain, 
a youth of honorable birth, who clasped the King 
round the waist when he saw the others seized 
upon. Him the nobles spared, in respect of his 
youth, for he was not above sixteen years, and 
business of the King's intercession in his behalf. 
There was a loud acclamation among the troops, 
who contended with each other in offering their 
tent-ropes, and the halters of their horses, to be 
the means of executing these obnoxious minis- 
ters. Cochran, who was a man of audacity, and 
had first attracted the King's attention by his be- 
havior in a duel, did not lose his courage, though 
he displayed it in an absurd manner. He had 
the vanity to request that his hands might not be 
tied with a hempen rope, but with a silk cord, 
which he offered to furnish from the ropes of his 
pavilion ; but this was only teaching his enemies 
how to give his feelings additional pain. They 
told him he was but a false thief and should die 
with all manner of shame ; and they were at 
pains to procure a hair-tether, or halter, as still 
more ignominious than a rope of hemp. With 



182 Stories From Scottish History 

this they hanged Cochran over the centre of the 
bridge of Lauder, in the middle of his compan- 
ions, who were suspended on each side of him. 
When the execution was finished, the lords re- 
turned to Edinburgh, where they resolved that 
the King should remain in the castle, under a 
gentle and respectful degree of restraint. 



CHAPTER XXII 
THE FATAL SHRIFT 

To be a king is a pleasant thing, 

To be a prince unto a peere : 
But you have heard and soe have I too, 

A man may well buy gold too deare. 

— Old Ballad. 

GRADUALLY James III sank back into 
those practices which had formerly cost 
him so dear. To prevent a renewal of 
the force put on his person, he made a rule that 
none should appear armed in the royal presence, 
except the King's Guard, who were placed under 
the command of that same John Ramsay of Bal- 
main, the only one of his former favorites who 
had been spared by Bell-the-Cat, and the other 
nobles, at the insurrection of Lauder bridge. 
This gave high offence in a country, where to be 
without arms was accounted both unsafe and dis- 
honorable. 

The King's love of money also grew, as is 
often the case, more excessive as he advanced in 

183 



184 Stories From Scottish History 

years. He would hardly grant anything, whether 
as matter of favor or of right, without receiving 
some gift or gratuity. By this means he ac- 
cumulated a quantity of treasure, which, consider- 
ing the poverty of his kingdom, is absolutely 
marvelous. His " black chest," as his strong-box 
was popularly called, was brimful of gold and 
silver coins, besides quantities of plate and jewels. 
But while he hoarded these treasures, he was 
augmenting the discontent of both the nobility 
and people ; and amid the universal sense of the 
King's weakness, and hatred of his avarice, a 
general rebellion was at length excited against 
him. 

The King, among other magnificent establish- 
ments, had built a great hall, and a royal chapel, 
within the castle of Stirling, both of them speci- 
mens of finely ornamented Gothic architecture. 
He had also established a double choir of musi- 
cians and singing men in the chapel, designing 
that one complete band should attend him wher- 
ever he went, to perform Divine service before 
his person, while the other, as complete in every 
respect, should remain in daily attendance in the 
royal chapel. 

As this establishment necessarily incurred con- 
siderable expense, James proposed to annex to 



The Fatal Shrift 185 

the royal chapel the revenues of the priory of 
Coldinghame, in Berwickshire. This rich priory 
had its lands among the possessions of the 
Homes and the Hepburns, who had established 
it as a kind of right that the prior should be of 
one or other of these two families, in order to in- 
sure their being favorably treated in such bar- 
gains as either of them might have to make with 
the Church. When, therefore, these powerful 
clans understood that, instead of a Home or a 
Hepburn being named prior, the King intended 
to bestow the revenues of Coldinghame to main- 
tain his royal chapel at Stirling, they became ex- 
tremely indignant, and began to hold a secret 
correspondence, and form alliances, with all the 
discontented men in Scotland, and especially 
with Angus, and such other lords as, having been 
engaged in the affair of Lauder bridge, naturally 
entertained apprehensions that the King would, 
one day or other, find means of avenging himself 
for the slaughter of his favorites, and the re- 
straint which had been imposed on his own per- 
son. 

By the time that the King heard of this league 
against him, it had reached so great a head that 
everything seemed to be prepared for war, since all 
the lords of the south of Scotland, who could 



186 Stories From Scottish History 

collect their forces with a rapidity unknown else- 
where, were now in the field, and ready to act. 
James, naturally timid, was induced to fly to the 
North. He fortified the castle of Stirling, com- 
manded by Shaw of Fintrie, to whom he com- 
mitted the custody of the prince his son, and 
heir-apparent, charging the governor neither to 
let any one enter the castle, nor permit any one to 
leave it, as he loved his honor and his life. Es- 
pecially he commanded him to let no one have 
access to his son. His treasures James deposited 
in Edinburgh Castle ; and having thus placed in 
safety, as he thought, the two things he loved 
best in the world, he hastened to the north coun- 
try, where he was joined by the great lords and 
gentlemen on that side of the Forth ; so that it 
seemed as if the south and the north parts of 
Scotland were about to fight against each other. 

Meanwhile, Angus, Home, Bothwell, and 
others of the insurgent nobility, determined, if 
possible, to get into their hands the person of the 
prince, resolving that, notwithstanding his being 
a child, they would avail themselves of his au- 
thority to oppose that of his father. Accord- 
ingly, they bribed, with a large sum of money, 
Shaw, the governor of Stirling Castle, to deliver 
the prince (afterward James IV) into their keep- 



The Fatal Shrift 187 

ing. When they had thus obtained possession 
of Prince James's person, they collected their 
army, and published proclamations in his name, 
intimating that King James III was bringing 
Englishmen into the country to assist in over- 
turning its liberties, — that he had sold the fron- 
tiers of Scotland to the Earl of Northumberland, 
and to the governor of Berwick, and declaring 
that they were united to dethrone a king whose 
intentions were so unkingly, and to place his son 
in his stead. These allegations were false ; but 
the King was so unpopular, that they were lis- 
tened to and believed. 

James, in the meantime, arrived before Stirling 
at the head of a considerable army, and passing 
to the gate of the castle, demanded entrance. 
But the governor refused to admit him. The 
King then eagerly asked for his son ; to which 
the treacherous governor replied that the lords 
had taken the Prince from him against his will. 
Then the poor King saw that he was deceived, 
and said in wrath, " False villain, thou hast be- 
trayed me ; but if I live, thou shalt be rewarded 
according to thy deserts ! " If the King had not 
been thus treacherously deprived of the power of 
retiring into Stirling Castle, he might, by means 
of that fortress, have avoided a battle until more 



188 Stories From Scottish History- 
forces had come up to his assistance ; and, in that 
case, might have overpowered the rebel lords. 
Yet having with him an army of nearly thirty 
thousand men, he moved boldly toward the in- 
surgents. The Lord David Lindsay of the Byres, 
in particular, encouraged the King to advance. 
He had joined him with a thousand horse and 
three thousand footmen from the counties of Fife 
and Kinross ; and now riding up to the King on 
a fiery gray horse, he lighted down, and entreated 
the King's acceptance of that noble animal, 
which, whether he had occasion to advance or 
retreat, would beat every other horse in Scotland 
provided the King could keep his saddle. 

The King upon this took courage, and ad- 
vanced against the rebels, confident in his great 
superiority of numbers. The field of battle was 
not above a mile or two distant from that where 
Bruce had defeated the English on the glorious 
day of Bannockburn ; but the fate of his de- 
scendant and successor was widely different. 

The King, moving forward in order of battle, 
called for the horse which Lord David Lindsay 
had given him, that he might ride forward and 
observe the motions of the enemy. He saw 
them from an eminence advancing in three di- 
visions, having about six thousand men in each. 



The Fatal Shrift 189 

The Homes and Hepburns had the first division, 
with the men of the East Borders and of East- 
Lothian. The next was composed of the 
Western Borderers, or men of Liddesdale and 
Annandale, with many from Galloway. The 
third division consisted of the rebel lords and 
their choicest followers, bringing with them the 
young Prince James, and displaying the broad 
banner of Scotland. 

When the King beheld his own ensign un- 
furled against him, and knew that his son was in 
the hostile ranks, his heart, never very coura- 
geous, began altogether to fail him ; for he remem- 
bered the prophecy, that he was to fall by his 
nearest of kin, and also what the astrologer had 
told him of the Scottish lion which was to be 
strangled by his own whelps. These idle fears 
so preyed on James's mind, that his alarm be- 
came visible to those around him, who conjured 
him to retire to a place of safety. But at that 
moment the battle began. 

The Homes and Hepburns attacked the King's 
vanguard, but were repulsed by the Highlanders 
with volleys of arrows. On this the Borderers 
of Liddesdale and Annandale, who bore spears 
longer than those used in the other parts of 
Scotland, charged with the wild and furious 



190 Stories From Scottish History 

cries, which they called their slogan, and bore 
down the royal forces opposed to them. 

Surrounded by sights and sounds to which he 
was so little accustomed, James lost his remain- 
ing presence of mind, and turning his back, fled 
toward Stirling. But he was unable to manage 
the gray horse given him by Lord Lindsay, 
which, taking the bit in his teeth, ran full gallop 
down-hill into a little hamlet, where was a mill, 
called Beaton's mill. A woman had come out to 
draw water at the mill-dam, but terrified at see- 
ing a man in complete armor coming down to- 
ward her at full speed, she left her pitcher, and 
fled back into the mill. The sight of the pitcher 
frightened the King's horse, so that he swerved 
as he was about to leap the brook, and James, 
losing his seat, fell to the ground, where, being 
heavily armed and sorely bruised, he remained 
motionless. The people came out, took him 
into the mill, and laid him on a bed. Some 
time afterward he recovered his senses ; but feel- 
ing himself much hurt and very weak, he de- 
manded the assistance of a priest. The miller's 
wife asked who he was, and he imprudently re- 
plied, " I was your King this morning." With 
equal imprudence -the poor woman ran to the 
door, and called with loud exclamations for a 



The Fatal Shrift 191 

priest to confess the King. " I am a priest," 
said an unknown person, who had just come up ; 
" lead me to the King." When the stranger was 
brought into the presence of the unhappy mon- 
arch, he kneeled with apparent humility, and 
asked him, " Whether he was mortally wounded ? " 
James replied, that his hurts were not mortal, if 
they were carefully looked to ; but that, in the 
meantime, he desired to be confessed, and re- 
ceive pardon of his sins from a priest, according 
to the fashion of the Catholic Church. " This 
shall presently give thee pardon ! " answered the 
assassin ; and, drawing a poniard, he stabbed the 
King four or five times to the very heart ; then 
took the body on his back and departed, no man 
opposing him, and no man knowing what he did 
with the body. 

Who this murderer was has never been dis- 
covered, nor whether he was really a priest or 
not. There were three persons, Lord Gray, 
Stirling of Keir, and one Borthwick, a priest, 
observed to pursue the King closely, and it was 
supposed that one or other of them did the 
bloody deed. 

The battle did not last long after the King left 
the field, the royal party drawing off toward 
Stirling, and the victors returning to their camp. 



192 Stories From Scottish History- 
It is usually called the battle of Sauchieburn, 
and was fought upon the 18th of June, 1488. 

Thus died King James the Third, an unwise 
and unwarlike prince ; although setting aside the 
murder of his brother the Earl of Mar, his char- 
acter is rather that of a weak and avaricious 
man, than of a cruel and criminal King. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
STOUT HEARTS 

Now is the time to prove your hardiment. 

— Wordsworth. 

THE fate of James III was not known 
for some time. He had been a patron 
of naval affairs ; and on the great revolt 
in which he perished, a brave sea officer, Sir 
Andrew Wood of Largo, was lying with a small 
squadron in the firth of Forth, not far distant 
from the coast where the battle was fought. He 
had sent ashore his boats, and brought off sev- 
eral wounded men of the King's party, among 
whom it was supposed might be the King him- 
self. 

Anxious to ascertain this important point, the 
lords sent to Sir Andrew Wood to come on 
shore, and appear before their council. Wood 
agreed, on condition that two noblemen of dis- 
tinction, Lords Seton and Fleming, should go 
on board his ships, and remain there as hostages 
for his safe return. 

The brave seaman presented himself before 
i93 



194 Stories From Scottish History 

the council and the young King, in the town of 
Leith. As soon as the Prince saw Sir Andrew, 
who was a goodly person, and richly dressed, he 
went toward him, and said, " Sir, are you my 
father ? " 

" I am not your father," answered Wood, the 
tears falling from his eyes ; " but I was your 
father's servant while he lived, and shall be so to 
lawful authority until the day I die." 

The lords then asked what men they were who 
had come out of his ships, and again returned to 
them on the day of the battle of Sauchie. 

" It was I and my brother," said Sir Andrew, 
undauntedly, " who were desirous to have be- 
stowed our lives in the King's defence." 

They then directly demanded of him, whether 
the King was on board his ships ? To which Sir 
Andrew replied, with the same firmness, " He is 
not on board my vessels. I wish he had been 
there, as I should have taken care to have kept 
him safe from the traitors who have murdered 
him, and whom I trust to see hanged and drawn 
for their demerits." 

These were bitter answers ; but the lords were 
obliged to endure them, without attempting any 
revenge, for fear the seamen should retaliate upon 
Fleming and Seton. But when the gallant com- 



Stout Hearts 195 

mander had returned on board his ship, they sent 
for the best officers in the town of Leith, and 
offered them a reward if they would attack Sir 
Andrew Wood and his two ships, and make him 
prisoner, to answer for his insolent conduct to the 
council. But Captain Barton, one of the best mar- 
iners in Leith, replied to the proposal by inform- 
ing the council, that though Sir Andrew had but 
two vessels, yet they were so well furnished with 
artillery, and he himself was so brave and skilful, 
that no ten ships in Scotland would be a match 
for him. 

James IV afterward received Sir Andrew Wood 
into high favor; and he deserved it by his ex- 
ploits. In 1490, a squadron of five English ves- 
sels came into the Forth, and plundered some 
Scottish merchant-ships. Sir Andrew sailed 
against them wjth his two ships, the Flower, and 
the Yellow Cmvel, took the five English vessels, 
and making their crews and commanders prison- 
ers, presented them to the King at Leith. Henry 
VII of England was so much incensed at this 
defeat, that he sent a stout sea-captain, called 
Stephen Bull, with three strong ships equipped 
on purpose, to take Sir Andrew Wood. They 
met him near the mouth of the firth, and fought 
with the utmost courage on both sides, attending 



196 Stories From Scottish History 

so much to the battle, and so little to anything 
else, that they let their ships drift with the tide ; 
so that the action, which began off St. Abb's 
Head, ended in the firth of Tay. At length 
Stephen Bull and his three ships were taken. 
Sir Andrew again presented the prisoners to the 
King, who sent them back to England, with a 
message to Henry VII, that he had as manly men 
in Scotland, as there were in England, and there- 
fore he desired he would send no more captains 
on such errands. 

To return to the lords who had gained the 
victory at Sauchie. They resolved to try some 
of the principal persons who had assisted King 
James III in the late civil commotion, as if in 
so doing they had committed treason against 
James IV, although the last was not, and could 
not be king, till after his father's death. They 
determined to begin with Lord David Lindsay of 
the Byres, a man well acquainted with military 
matters, but otherwise blunt and ignorant. 

It was on the 10th of May, 1489, that Lindsay 
was summoned before the Parliament, then sitting 
at Edinburgh, to defend himself against a charge 
of treason, which stated, " that he had come in 
arms to Sauchie with the King's father against 
the King himself, and had given the King's father 



Stout Hearts 197 

a sword and good horse, counseling him to de- 
vour the King's grace here present." 

Lord Lindsay knew nothing about the form of 
law affairs, but hearing himself repeatedly called 
upon to answer to this accusation, he started up, 
and told the nobles of the Parliament they were 
all villains and traitors themselves, and that he 
would prove them to be such with his sword. 
The late King, he said, had been cruelly mur- 
dered by villains, who had brought the Prince 
with them to be a pretext and color for their 
enterprise, and if he did not punish them hastily 
for that murder, they would murder him when 
they thought time, as they did his father. " And," 
said the stout old lord, addressing himself person- 
ally to the King, who was present in Parliament, 
" if your grace's father were still living, I would 
fight for him to the death, and stand in no awe of 
these false lurdans " (that is, villains). " Or, if 
your grace had a son who should come in arms 
against you, I would take your part against his 
abettors, and fight in your cause against them, 
three men against six. Trust me, that though 
they cause your grace to believe ill of me, I will 
prove in the end more faithful than any of them." 
The Lord Chancellor, who felt the force of 
these words, tried to turn off their effect, by say- 



198 Stories From Scottish History 

ing to the King, that Lord Lindsay was an old- 
fashioned man, ignorant of legal forms, and not 
able to speak reverently in his grace's presence. 
" But," said he, " he will submit himself to your 
grace's pleasure, and you must not be severe with 
him ; " and, turning to the Lord David, he said, 
" It is best for you to submit to the King's will, 
and his grace will be good to you." 

Now Lord David had a brother-germain, named 
Patrick Lindsay, who was as good a lawyer as 
Lord Lindsay was a soldier. The two brothers 
had been long upon bad terms ; but when this 
Mr. Patrick saw the Chancellor's drift, he trod 
upon his elder brother's foot, to make him under- 
stand that he ought not to follow the advice given 
him, nor come into the King's will, which would 
be in fact confessing himself guilty. The Lord 
David, however, did not understand the hint. 
On the contrary, as he chanced to have a sore 
toe, the tread of his brother's foot was painful to 
him, so that he looked fiercely at him, and said, 
" Thou art too pert, thou loon, to stamp upon my 
foot — if it were out of the King's presence, I 
would strike thee upon the face." 

But Mr. Patrick, without regarding his broth- 
er's causeless anger, fell on his knees before the 
assembled nobles, and besought that he might 



Stout Hearts 199 

have leave to plead for his brother ; " for," said 
he, " I see no man of law will undertake his cause 
for fear of displeasing the King's grace ; and 
though, my lord, my brother and I have not 
been friends for many years, yet my heart 
will not suffer me to see the native house from 
which I am descended perish for want of assist- 
ance." 

The King having granted Mr. Patrick Lindsay 
liberty of speech in his brother's behalf, he began 
by objecting to the King's sitting in judgment in 
a case, in which he was himself a party, and had 
been an actor. " Wherefore," said Mr. Patrick, 
" we object to his presence to try this cause, in 
which, being a party, he ought not to be a judge. 
Therefore we require his Majesty, in God's name, 
to rise and leave the court, till the question be 
considered and decided." The Lord Chancellor 
and the lords, having conversed together, found 
that this request was reasonable. So the young 
King was obliged to retire into an inner apart- 
ment, which he resented as a species of public 
affront. 

Mr. Patrick next endeavored to procure favor, 
by entreating the lords who were about to hear 
the cause, to judge it with impartiality, and as 
they would wish to be dealt with themselves, 



200 Stories From Scottish History 

were they in misfortune, and some party adverse 
to them possessed of power. 

" Proceed, and answer to the accusation," said 
the Chancellor. " You shall have justice at our 
hands." 

Then Mr. Patrick brought forward a defence in 
point of legal form, stating that the summons re- 
quired that the Lord Lindsay should appear forty 
days after citation, whereas the forty days were 
now expired ; so that he could not be legally 
compelled to answer to the accusation until sum- 
moned anew. 

This was found good law ; and Lord David 
Lindsay, and the other persons accused, were 
dismissed for the time, nor were any proceedings 
ever resumed against them. 

Lord David, who had listened to the defences 
without understanding their meaning, was so de- 
lighted with the unexpected consequences of his 
brother's eloquence, that he broke out into the 
following rapturous acknowledgment of grati- 
tude : " Verily, brother, but you have fine piet 
words " (that is, magpie words). " I could not 
have believed, by Saint Mary, that ye had such 
words. Ye shall have the Mains of Kirkfother 
for your day's wage." 

The King, on his side, threatened Mr. Patrick 



Stout Hearts 201 

with a reward of a different kind, saying, " he 
would set him where he should not see his feet 
for twelve months." Accordingly, he was as 
good as his word, sending the successful advo- 
cate to be prisoner in the dungeon of the Castle 
of Rothsay, in the island of Bute, where he lay 
for a whole year. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
A GALLANT KING 

In Scotland is a bonnie kinge, 
As proper a youth as neede to be, 

Well given to every happy thing, 
That can be in a king to see. 

— Old Ballad. 

JAMES IV was not long upon the throne ere 
his own reflections, and the remonstrances 
of some of the clergy, made him sensible, 
that his accompanying the rebel lords against his 
father in the field of Sauchie was a very sinful 
action. He did not consider his own youth, nor 
the enticements of the lords, who had obtained 
possession of his person, as any sufficient excuse 
for having been, in some degree, accessory to his 
father's death, by appearing in arms against him. 
He deeply repented the crime, and, according to 
the doctrines of the Roman Catholic religion, en- 
deavored to atone for it by various acts of pen- 
ance. Among other tokens of repentance, he 
caused to be made an iron belt, or girdle, which 
he wore constantly under his clothes ; and every 



A Gallant King 203 

year of his life he added another link of an 
ounce or two to the weight of it, as if he desired 
that his penance should not be relaxed, but rather 
should increase during all the days of his life. 

It was, perhaps, in consequence of these feel- 
ings of remorse, that the King not only forgave 
that part of the nobility which had appeared on 
his father's side, and abstained from all further 
persecution against Lord Lindsay and others, but 
did all in his power to conciliate their affections, 
without losing those of the other party. The 
wealth of his father enabled him to be liberal to 
the nobles on both sides, and at the same time 
to maintain a more splendid appearance in his 
court and royal state than had been practiced by 
any of his predecessors. He was himself expert 
in all feats of exercise and arms, and encouraged 
the use of them, and the practice of tilts and 
tournaments in his presence, wherein he often 
took part himself. It was his frequent custom to 
make proclamation through his kingdom, that all 
lords and gentlemen who might desire to win 
honor, should come to Edinburgh or Stirling, and 
exercise themselves in tilting with the lance, 
fighting with the battle-axe, the two-handed 
sword, shooting with the long bow r , or any other 
warlike contention. He who did best in these 



204 Stories From Scottish History 

encounters had his adversary's weapon delivered 
up to him ; and the best tilter with the spear re- 
ceived from the King a lance with a head of pure 
gold. 

The fame of these warlike sports — for sports 
they were accounted, though they often ended in 
sad and bloody earnest — brought knights from 
other parts of Europe to contend with those of 
Scotland ; but, says the historian, with laudable 
partiality, there were none of them went un- 
matched, and few that were not overthrown. 

We may mention as an example, the combat 
in the lists between a celebrated German knight, 
who came to Scotland in search of champions 
with whom to match himself in single fight, and 
whose challenge was accepted by Sir Patrick 
Hamilton, a brother of the Earl of Arran, and 
near kinsman to the King. They met gallantly 
with their lances at full gallop, and broke their 
spears without doing each other further injury. 
When they were furnished with fresh lances, they 
took a second course ; but the Scottish knight's 
horse, being indifferently trained, swerved, and 
could by no endeavors of the rider be brought 
to encounter his adversary. Then Sir Patrick 
sprang from his saddle, and called to the Ger- 
man knight to do the same, saying, " A horse 



A Gallant King 205 

was a weak warrant to trust to when men had 
most to do." Then the German dismounted, 
and fought stoutly with Sir Patrick for the best 
part of an hour. At length Hamilton, by a blow 
of his sword, brought the foreigner on his knees, 
whereupon the King threw his hat into the lists, 
as a sign that the combat should cease. But 
the honor of the day remained with Sir Patrick 
Hamilton. 

Besides being fond of martial exercises, James 
encouraged the arts, and prosecuted science, as 
it was then understood. He studied medicine 
and surgery, and appears to have been some- 
thing of a chemist. 

An experiment made under his direction, shows 
at least the interest which James took in science, 
although he used a whimsical mode of gratifying 
his curiosity. Being desirous to know which 
was the primitive or original language, he caused 
a deaf and dumb woman to be transported to 
the solitary island of Inchkeith, with two infant 
children, devising thus to discover what language 
they would talk when they came to the age of 
speech. A Scottish historian, who tells the story, 
adds, with great simplicity, " Some say they spoke 
good Hebrew ; for my part I know not, but from 
report." It is more likely they would scream 



206 Stories From Scottish History 

like their dumb nurse, or bleat like the goats and 
sheep on the island. 

The same historian gives a very pleasing pic- 
ture of James IV. 

There was great love, he says, between the 
subjects and their sovereign, for the King was 
free from the vice of avarice, which was his 
father's failing. Neither would he endure flat- 
terers, cowards, or sycophants about his person, 
but ruled by the counsel of the most eminent 
nobles, and thus won the hearts of all men. He 
often went disguised among the common people, 
and asked them questions about the King and 
his measures, and thus learned the opinion which 
was entertained of him by his subjects. 

He was also active in the discharge of his 
royal duties. His authority, as it was greater 
than that of any king who had reigned since the 
time of James I, was employed for the adminis- 
tration of justice, and the protection of every 
rank of his subjects, so that he was reverenced 
as well as beloved by all classes of his people. 
Scotland obtained, under his administration, a 
greater share of prosperity than she had yet 
enjoyed. She possessed some share of foreign 
trade, and the success of Sir Andrew Wood, 
together with the King's exertions in building 



A Gallant King 207 

vessels, made the country be respected, as hav- 
ing a considerable naval power. 

In 1503 the King of England agreed to give 
his daughter Margaret, a beautiful and accom- 
plished princess, to James IV in marriage. He 
offered to endow her with an ample fortune, and 
on that alliance was to be founded a close league 
of friendship between England and Scotland, the 
Kings obliging themselves to assist each other 
against all the rest of the world. Unfortunately 
for both countries, but particularly so for Scot- 
land, this peace, designed to be perpetual, did 
not last above ten years. Yet the good policy 
of Henry VII bore fruit after a hundred years 
had passed away; and in consequence of the 
marriage of James IV and the Princess Margaret, 
an end was put to all future national wars, by 
their great grandson, James VI of Scotland and 
I of England, becoming King of the whole island 
of Great Britain. 

This important marriage was celebrated with 
great pomp. The Earl of Surrey, a gallant Eng- 
lish nobleman, had the charge to conduct the 
Princess Margaret to her new kingdom of Scot- 
land. The King came to meet her at Newbattle 
Abbey, within six miles of Edinburgh. He was 
gallantly dressed in a jacket of crimson velvet, 



208 Stories From Scottish History- 
bordered with cloth of gold, and had hanging at 
his back his lure, as it is called, an implement 
which is used in hawking. He was distinguished 
by his strength and agility, leaping on his horse 
without putting his toe in the stirrup, and always 
riding full gallop, follow who could. When he 
was about to enter Edinburgh with his new bride, 
he wished her to ride behind him, and made a 
gentleman mount to see whether his horse would 
carry double. But as his spirited charger was 
not broken for that purpose, the King got up 
before his bride on her palfrey, which was quieter, 
and so they rode through the town of Edinburgh 
in procession, in the same manner as you may 
now see a good farmer and his wife riding to 
church. There were shows prepared to receive 
them, all in the romantic taste of the age. Thus 
they found in their way a tent pitched, out of 
which came a knight armed at all points, with a 
lady bearing his bugle-horn. Suddenly another 
knight came up, and took away the lady. Then 
the first knight followed him, and challenged him 
to fight. They drew swords accordingly, and 
fought before the King and Queen for their 
amusement, till the one struck the sword out of 
the other's hands, and then the King commanded 
the battle to cease. In this representation all 






A Gallant King 209 

was sport except the blows, and these were seri- 
ous enough. Many other military spectacles were 
exhibited, tilts and tournaments in particular. 
James, calling himself the Savage Knight, ap- 
peared in a wild dress, accompanied by the fierce 
chiefs from the Borders and Highlands, who 
fought with each other till several were wounded 
and slain in these ferocious entertainments. It 
is said the King was not very sorry to see him- 
self thus rid of these turbulent leaders, whose 
feuds and depredations contributed so often to 
the public disturbance. 



CHAPTER XXV 
THE STRONG SHIP LION 

" Fight on, my men," Sir Andrew says, 

" A little I'm hurt, but yet not slain; 
I'll but lie down and bleed a while, 

And then I'll rise and fight again. 
Fight on, my men," Sir Andrew says, 

" And never flinch before the foe ; 
And stand fast by St. Andrew's cross, 

Until you hear my whistle blow." 
They never heard his whistle blow, — 

Which made their hearts wax sore adread : 
Then Horseley said, " Aboard, my lord, 

For well I wot Sir Andrew's dead." 

— Ballad of Sir Andrew Barton. 

JAMES IV was extremely desirous to in- 
crease the strength of his kingdom by sea, 
and its commerce ; and Scotland presenting 
a great extent of seacoast, and numerous har- 
bors, had at this time a considerable trade. The 
royal navy, besides one vessel called the Great 
Michael, supposed to be the largest in the world, 
and which, as an old author says, " cumbered all 
Scotland to get her fitted out for sea," consisted, 
it is said, of sixteen ships of war. The King 
210 



: 



The Strong Ship Lion 2 1 1 

paid particular attention to naval affairs, and 
seemed never more happy than when inspecting 
and exercising his little navy. 

It chanced that one John Barton, a Scottish 
mariner, had been captured by the Portuguese, as 
far back as the year 1476. As the King of Por- 
tugal refused to make any amends, James granted 
the family of Barton letters of reprisals, that is, a 
warrant empowering them to take all Portuguese 
vessels which should come in their way, until 
their loss was made up. There were three 
brothers, all daring men, but especially the eldest 
whose name was Andrew Barton. He had two 
strong ships, the larger called the Lion, the lesser 
the Jenny Pirzven, with which it would appear 
he cruised in the British Channel, stopping not 
only Portuguese vessels, but also English ships 
bound for Portugal. Complaints being made to 
King Henry, he fitted out two vessels, which 
were filled with chosen men, and placed under 
the command of Lord Thomas Howard and Sir 
Edward Howard, both sons to the Earl of Sur- 
rey. They found Barton and his vessels cruising 
in the Downs, being guided to the place by the 
captain of a merchant vessel, whom Barton had 
plundered on the preceding day. 

On approaching the enemy, the noble brothers 



212 Stories From Scottish History 

showed no ensign of war, but put up a willow 
wand on their masts, as being the emblem of a 
trading vessel. But when the Scotsman at- 
tempted to make them bring to, the English 
threw out their flags and pennons, and fired a 
broadside of their ordinance. Barton then knew 
that he was engaged with the King of England's 
ships of war. Far from being dismayed at this, 
he engaged boldly, and, distinguished by his rich 
dress and bright armor, appeared on deck with a 
whistle of gold about his neck, suspended by a 
chain of the same precious metal, and encouraged 
his men to fight valiantly. 

The fight was very obstinate. If we may be- 
lieve a ballad of the time, Barton's ship was 
furnished with a peculiar contrivance, suspending 
large weights, or beams, from his yardarms, to be 
dropped down upon the enemy when they should 
come alongside. To make use of this contriv- 
ance, it was necessary that a person should as- 
cend the mainmast, or in naval language, go aloft. 
As the English apprehended much mischief from 
the consequences of this manoeuvre, Howard had 
stationed a Yorkshire gentleman, named Hustler, 
the best archer in the ship, with strict injunctions 
to shoot every one who should attempt to go 
aloft to let fall the beams of Barton's vessel 






The Strong Ship Lion 213 

Two men were successively killed in the attempt, 
and Andrew Barton himself, confiding in the 
strong armor which he wore, began to ascend the 
mast. Lord Thomas Howard called out to the 
archer to shoot true, on peril of his life. " Were 
I to die for it," said Hustler, " I have but two 
arrows left." The first which he shot bounded 
from Barton's armor without hurting him ; but 
as the Scottish mariner raised his arm to climb 
higher, the archer took aim where the armor af- 
forded him no protection, and wounded him 
mortally through the arm-pit. 

Barton descended from the mast. " Fight on," 
he said, " my brave hearts ; I am a little wounded, 
but not slain. I will but rest a while, and then 
rise and fight again ; meantime, stand fast by 
St. Andrew's Cross," meaning the Scottish flag, 
or ensign. He encouraged his men with his 
whistle, while the breath of life remained. At 
length the whistle was heard no longer, and the 
Howards, boarding the Scottish vessel, found 
that her daring captain was dead. They carried 
the Lioii into the Thames, and it is remarkable 
that Barton's ship became the second man-of-war 
in the English navy. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

FLODDEN FIELD 

Still from the sire the son shall hear 
Of the stern strife, and carnage drear, 

Of Flodden's fatal field, 
Where shiver'd was fair Scotland's spear 

And broken was her shield ! 

—Scott. 

KING JAMES IV was highly incensed at 
the attack on Barton's ship, and further 
jealousies arising between Scotland and 
England, the King, contrary to the advice of his 
wisest counselors, determined to cross the Borders 
with a royal army. The Parliament were un- 
willing to go into the King's measures. James, 
however, was personally so much liked, that he 
obtained the consent of the Parliament to this 
fatal and unjust war ; and orders were given to 
assemble all the array of the kingdom of Scotland 
upon the Boroughmoor of Edinburgh, a wide 
common, in the midst of which the royal stand- 
ard was displayed from a large stone, or fragment 
of rock, called the Harestone. 

Various measures were even in this extremity 
214 



Flodden Field 215 

resorted to for preventing the war. One or two 
of them seem to have been founded upon a 
knowledge, that the King's temper was tinged 
with a superstitious melancholy, partly arising 
from constitutional habits, partly from the re- 
morse which he always entertained for his acces- 
sion to his father's death. It was to these feel- 
ings that the following scene was doubtless ad- 
dressed : 

As the King was at his devotions in the church 
of Linlithgow, a figure, dressed in an azure-col- 
ored robe, girt with a girdle, or sash of linen, 
having sandals on his feet, with long yellow hair, 
and a grave commanding countenance, suddenly 
appeared before him. This singular-looking per- 
son paid little or no respect to the royal presence, 
but pressing up to the desk at which the King was 
seated, leaned down on it with his arms, and ad- 
dressed him with little reverence. He declared, 
that " his mother laid her commands on James to 
forbear the journey which he purposed, seeing 
that neither he, nor any who went with him, 
would thrive in the undertaking." He also cau- 
tioned the King against frequenting the society 
of women, and using their counsel; "If thou 
dost," said he, " thou shalt be confounded and 
brought to shame." 



216 Stories From Scottish History 

These words spoken, the messenger escaped 
from among the courtiers so suddenly, that he 
seemed to disappear. There is no doubt that 
this person had been dressed up to represent Saint 
John, called in Scripture the adopted son of the 
Virgin Mary. The Roman Catholics believed in 
the possibility of the souls of departed saints and 
apostles appearing on earth, and many impostures 
are recorded in history of the same sort with that 
I have just told you. 

Another story, not so well authenticated, says, 
that a proclamation was heard at the market-cross 
of Edinburgh, at the dead of night, summoning 
the King, by his name and titles, and many of his 
nobles and principal leaders, to appear before the 
tribunal of Pluto within the space of forty days. 
This also has the appearance of a stratagem, in- 
vented to deter the King from his expedition. 

But neither these artifices, nor the advice and 
entreaty of Margaret, the Queen of Scotland, 
could deter James from his unhappy expedition. 
He was so well beloved, that he soon assembled 
a great army, and placing himself at their head, 
he entered England near the castle of Twisell, on 
the 22d of August, 15 13. He speedily obtained 
possession of many Border fortresses and col- 
lected a great spoil. Instead, however, of ad- 



Flodden Field 217 

vancing with his army upon the country of Eng- 
land, which lay defenceless before him, the King 
is said to have trifled away his time with Lady 
Heron of Ford, a beautiful woman, who contrived 
to divert him from the prosecution of his expedi- 
tion, until the approach of an English army. 

While James lay thus idle on the frontier, the 
Earl of Surrey, that same noble and gallant 
knight who had formerly escorted Queen Mar- 
garet to Scotland, now advanced at the head of 
an army of twenty-six thousand men. The earl 
was joined by his son Thomas, the lord high ad- 
miral, with a large body of soldiers who had been 
disembarked at Newcastle. As the warlike in- 
habitants of the northern counties gathered fast 
to Surrey's standard, so, on the other hand, the 
Scots began to return home in great numbers ; 
because, though according to the feudal laws, 
each man had brought with him provisions for 
forty days, these being now nearly expended, a 
scarcity began to be felt in James's host. Others 
went home to place their booty in safety. 

Surrey, feeling himself the stronger party, be- 
came desirous to provoke the Scottish King to 
fight. He therefore sent James a message, de- 
fying him to battle ; and the Lord Thomas How- 
ard, at the same time, added a message, that as 



21 8 Stones From Scottish History- 
King James had often complained of the death 
of Andrew Barton, he, Lord Thomas, by whom 
that deed was done, was now ready to maintain 
it with his sword in the front of the fight. James 
returned for answer, that to meet the English in 
battle was so much his wish, that had the mes- 
sage of the earl found him at Edinburgh, he 
would have laid aside all other business to have 
met him on a pitched field. 

But the Scottish nobles entertained a very dif- 
ferent opinion from their King. They held a 
council at which Lord Patrick Lindsay was made 
president, or chancellor. This was the same per- 
son, who, in the beginning of the King's reign, 
had pleaded so well for his brother, to whose 
titles and estate he afterward succeeded. He 
opened the discussion, by telling the council a 
parable of a rich merchant, who would needs go 
to play at dice with a common hazarder, or 
sharper, and stake a rose-noble of gold against a 
crooked halfpenny. " You, my lords," he said, 
" will be as unwise as the merchant, if you risk 
your King, whom I compare to a precious rose- 
noble, against the English General, who is but an 
old crooked churl, lying in a chariot. Though 
the English lose the day, they lose nothing but 
this old churl and a parcel of mechanics ; whereas 



Flodden Field 219 

so many of our common people have gone home, 
that kw are left with us but the prime of our no- 
bility." He therefore gave it as his advice, that 
the King should withdraw from the army, for 
safety of his person, and that some brave noble- 
man should be named by the council to com- 
mand in the action. The council agreed to 
recommend this plan to the King. 

But James, who desired to gain fame by his 
own military skill and prowess, suddenly broke in 
on the council, and told them, with much heat, 
that they should not put such a disgrace upon 
him. " I will fight with the English," he said, 
" though you had all sworn the contrary. You 
may shame yourselves by flight, but you shall not 
shame me ; and as for Lord Patrick Lindsay, who 
has got the first vote, I vow, that when I return 
to Scotland, I will cause him to be hanged over 
his own gate." 

While King James was in this stubborn humor, 
the Earl of Surrey had advanced as far as Wooler, 
so that only four or five miles divided the armies. 
The English leader inquired anxiously for some 
guide, who was acquainted with the country, 
which is intersected and divided by one or two 
large brooks, which unite to form the river Till, 
and is, besides, in part mountainous. A person 



220 Stories From Scottish History 

well mounted, and completely armed, but having 
the visor of his helmet lowered, to conceal his 
face, rode up, and, dismounting, knelt down before 
the earl, and offered to be his guide, if he might 
obtain pardon of an offence of which he had been 
guilty. The earl assured him of his forgiveness, 
provided he had not committed treason against 
the King of England, or personally, wronged any 
lady — crimes which Surrey declared he would 
not pardon. " God forbid," said the cavalier, 
" that I should have been guilty of such shameful 
sin ; I did but assist in killing a Scotsman who 
ruled our Borders too strictly, and often did 
wrong to Englishmen." So saying, he raised the 
visor of his helmet, which hid his face, and showed 
the countenance of the Bastard Heron, who, some 
years previously, had been a partner in the as- 
sassination of Sir Robert Ker, a Scottish noble- 
man of the Borders. His appearance was most 
welcome to the Earl of Surrey, who readily par- 
doned him the death of a Scotsman at that 
moment, especially since he knew him to be as 
well acquainted with every pass and path on the 
eastern frontier, as a life of constant incursion and 
depredation could make him. 

The Scottish army had fixed their camp upon 
a hill called Flodden, which arises to close in, as 



Flodden Field 221 

it were, the extensive flat called Millfield plain. 
This eminence slopes steeply toward the plain, 
and there is an extended piece of level ground on 
the top, where the Scots might have drawn up 
their army, and awaited at great advantage the 
attack of the English. Surrey liked the idea of 
venturing an assault on that position so ill, that 
he resolved to try whether he could not prevail 
on the King to abandon it. He sent a herald to 
invite James to come down from the height, and 
join battle in the open plain of Millfield below — 
reminded him of the readiness with which he had 
accepted his former challenge — and hinted, that 
it was the opinion of the English chivalry as- 
sembled for battle, that any delay of the encoun- 
ter would sound to the King's dishonor. 

We have seen that James was sufficiently rash 
and imprudent, but his impetuosity did not reach 
to the pitch Surrey perhaps expected. He re- 
fused to receive the messenger into his presence, 
and returned for answer, that it was not such a 
message as it became an earl to send to a king. 

Surrey, therefore, distressed for provisions, was 
obliged to resort to another mode of bringing the 
Scots to action. He moved northward, sweep- 
ing round the hill of Flodden, keeping out of the 
r^ach of the Scottish artillery, until, crossing the 



222 Stories From Scottish History- 
Till near Twisell Castle, he placed himself, with 
his whole army, between James and his own 
kingdom. The King suffered him to make this 
flank movement without interruption, though it 
must have afforded repeated and advantageous 
opportunities for attack. But when he saw the 
English army interposed between him and his 
dominions, he became alarmed lest he should be 
cut off from Scotland, and resolved to give signal 
at once for the fatal battle. 

With this view the Scots set fire to their huts, 
and the other refuse and litter of their camp. The 
smoke spread along the side of the hill, and under 
its cover the army of King James descended the 
eminence, which is much less steep on the north- 
ern than the southern side, while the English ad- 
vanced to meet them, both concealed from each 
other by the clouds of smoke. 

The Scots descended in four strong columns, 
all marching parallel to each other, having a re- 
serve of the Lothian men commanded by Earl 
Bothwell. The English were also divided into 
four bodies, with a reserve of cavalry led by 
Dacre. 

The battle commenced at the hour of four in 
the afternoon. The first which encountered was 
the left wing of the Scots, commanded by the 



Flodden Field 223 

Earl of Huntly and Lord Home, which over- 
powered and threw into disorder the right wing 
of the English, under Sir Edmund Howard. Sir 
Edmund was beaten down, his standard taken 9 
and he himself in danger of instant death, when 
he was relieved by the Bastard Heron, who came 
up at the head of a band of determined outlaws 
like himself, and extricated Howard. Thomas 
Howard, the lord high admiral, who commanded 
the second division of the English, bore down, 
and routed the Scottish division commanded by 
Crawford and Montrose, who were both slain. 
Thus matters went on the Scottish left. 

Upon the extreme right of James's army, a 
division of Highlanders, consisting of the clans 
of MacKenzie, MacLean, and others, commanded 
by the Earls of Lennox and Argyle, were so 
insufferably annoyed by the volleys of the English 
arrows, that they broke their ranks, and rushed 
tumultuously down-hill, and being attacked at 
once in flank and rear by Sir Edward Stanley, 
with the men of Cheshire and Lancashire, were 
routed with great slaughter. 

The division of the Scottish army which was 
commanded by James in person consisted of the 
choicest of his nobles and gentry, whose armor 
was so good, that the arrows made but slight 



224 Stories From Scottish History 

impression upon them. They were all on foot — 
the King himself had parted with his horse. 
They. engaged the Earl of Surrey, who opposed 
to them the division which he personally com- 
manded. The Scots attacked with the greatest 
fury, and, for a time, had the better. Surrey's 
squadrons were disordered, his standard in great 
danger, and the English seemed in some risk of 
losing the battle. But Stanley, who had defeated 
the Highlanders, came up on one flank of the 
King's division ; the Admiral, who had con- 
quered Crawford and Montrose, assailed them on 
the other. The Scots showed the most un- 
daunted courage. Uniting themselves with the 
reserve under Bothwell, they formed into a circle 
with their spears extended on every side, and 
fought obstinately. Bows being now useless, the 
English advanced on all sides with their bills, a 
huge weapon which made ghastly wounds. But 
they could not force the Scots either to break or 
retire, although the carnage among them was 
dreadful. James himself died amid his warlike 
peers and loyal gentry. He was twice wounded 
with arrows, and at length despatched with a bill. 
Night fell without the battle being absolutely 
decided, for the Scottish centre kept their ground, 
and Home and Dacre held each other at bay. 



Flodden Field 225 

But during the night, the remainder of the Scot- 
tish army drew off in silent despair from the 
bloody field, on which they left their King, and 
the flower of his nobility. 

This great and decisive victory was gained by 
the Earl of Surrey on 9th September, 1 5 1 3. The 
victors had about five thousand men slain, the 
Scots twice that number at least. But the loss 
lay not so much in the number of the slain, as in 
their rank and quality. The English lost very few 
men of distinction. The Scots left on the field 
the King, two bishops, two mitred abbots, twelve 
earls, thirteen lords, and five eldest sons of peers. 
The number of gentlemen slain was beyond cal- 
culation;— there is scarcely a family of name in 
Scottish history who did not lose a relative there. 

The Scots were much disposed to dispute the 
fact, that James IV had fallen on Flodden Field. 
Some said, he had retired from the kingdom, and 
made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Others pre- 
tended, that in the twilight, when the fight was 
nigh ended, four tall horsemen came into the field, 
having each a bunch of straw on the point of 
their spears, as a token for them to know each 
other by. They said these men mounted the King 
on a dun hackney, and that he was seen to cross 
the Tweed with them at nightfall. 



226 Stories From Scottish History 

But these are idle fables, invented and believed 
because the vulgar love what is mysterious, and 
the Scots readily gave credit to what tended 
to deprive their enemies of so signal a trophy of 
victory. 

The body which the English affirm to have 
been that of James, was found on the field by 
Lord Dacre, and carried by him to Berwick, and 
presented to Surrey. Both of these lords knew 
James's person too well to be mistaken. The 
body was also acknowledged by his two favorite 
attendants, Sir William Scott and Sir John For- 
man, who wept at beholding it. 

The fate of these relics was singular and de- 
grading. They were not committed to the tomb, 
for the Pope, being at that time in alliance with 
England against France, had laid James under a 
sentence of excommunication, so that no priest 
dared to pronounce the funeral-service over them. 
The royal corpse was therefore embalmed, and 
sent to the Monastery of Sheen, in Surrey. It 
lay there till the Reformation, when the mon- 
astery was given to the Duke of Suffolk ; and 
after that period, the body, which was lapped up 
in a sheet of lead, was suffered to toss about the 
house like a piece of useless lumber. Stow, the 
historian, saw it flung into a waste room among 



Flodden Field 227 

old pieces of wood, lead, and other rubbish. 
Some idle workmen, " for their foolish pleasure," 
says the same writer, " hewed off the head ; and 
one Lancelot Young, master-glazier to Queen 
Elizabeth, finding a sweet smell come from thence, 
owing, doubtless, to the spices used for embalm- 
ing the body, carried the head home, and kept it 
for some time ; but in the end, caused the sexton 
of Saint Michael's, Wood Street, to bury it in the 
charnel-house." 

Such was the end of that King once so proud 
and powerful. The fatal battle of Flodden, in 
which he was slain, and his army destroyed, is 
justly considered as one of the most calamitous 
events in Scottish history. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
A DASH FOR LIBERTY 

A horse ! a horse ! My kingdom for a horse ! 

— Shakespeare. 

JAMES V was a child of less than two years 
when, on his father's death at Flodden, he 
became King. The regency of the kingdom 
was at first entrusted to his mother, Queen Mar- 
garet, who in 1 5 14 married Archibald Douglas, 
the Earl of Angus. 

Margaret might have maintained her authority, 
for she was personally much beloved ; but it was 
the fate or the folly of that Queen to form rash 
marriages. Like her brother Henry of England, 
who tired of his wives, Margaret seems to have 
been addicted to tire of her husbands ; but she 
had not the power of cutting the heads from the 
spouses whom she desired to be rid of. Having 
obtained a divorce from Angus, she married a 
young man of little power and inferior rank, 
named Henry Stewart. She lost her influence by 
that ill-advised measure. Angus, therefore, rose 
to the supreme authority in Scotland, obtained 
228 



A Dash for Liberty 229 

possession of the person of the King, transacted 
everything in the name of James, but by his own 
authority, and became in all respects the Regent 
of Scotland, though without assuming the name. 

The talents of the Earl of Angus were equal 
to the charge he had assumed. He was able to 
accomplish a treaty of peace with England, 
which was of great advantage to the kingdom. 
But, according to the fashion of the times, 
Angus was much too desirous to confer all the 
great offices, lands, and other advantages in the 
disposal of the crown, upon his own friends and 
adherents, to the exclusion of all the nobles and 
gentry, who had either taken part against him in 
the late struggle for power, or were not decidedly 
his partisans. The course of justice also was 
shamefully perverted, by the partiality of Angus 
for his friends, kinsmen, and adherents. 

An old historian says, " that there dared no 
man strive at law with a Douglas, or yet with the 
adherent of a Douglas ; for if he did, he was 
sure to get the worst of his law-suit. And," 
he adds, " although Angus traveled through the 
country under the pretence of punishing thieves, 
robbers, and murderers, there were no malefac- 
tors so great as those which rode in his own 
company." 



230 Stories From Scottish History 

The King, who was now seventeen years old, 
became disgusted with the sort of restraint in 
which Angus detained him, and desirous to free 
himself from his tutelage. His mother had 
doubtless a natural influence over him, and that 
likewise was exerted to the earl's prejudice. 
The Earl of Lennox, a wise and intelligent no- 
bleman, near in blood to the King, was also 
active in fostering his displeasure against the 
Douglasses, and schemes began to be agitated 
for taking the person of the King out of the 
hands of Angus. But Angus was so well es- 
tablished in the government, that his authority 
could not be destroyed except by military force ; 
and it was not easy to bring such to bear against 
one so powerful, and of such a martial character. 

He placed around the King's person a guard 
of a hundred men of his own choice, commanded 
by Douglas of Parkhead ; he made his brother 
George, whom James detested, Master of the 
Royal Household ; and Archibald of Kilspindie, 
his uncle, Lord Treasurer of the Realm. The 
close restraint in which the King found himself, 
only increased his eager desire to be rid of all 
the Douglasses together, and James had recourse 
to stratagem. 

He prevailed on his mother, Queen Margaret, 



A Dash for Liberty 231 

to yield up to him the castle of Stirling, which 
was her jointure-house, and secretly to put it into 
the hands of a governor whom he could trust. 
This was done with much caution. Thus pre- 
pared with a place of refuge, James watched 
with anxiety an opportunity of flying to it ; and 
he conducted himself with such apparent confi- 
dence toward Angus, that the Douglasses were 
lulled into security, and concluded that the King 
was reconciled to his state of bondage, and had 
despaired of making his escape. 

James was then residing at Falkland, a royal 
palace conveniently situated for hunting and 
hawking, in which he seemed to take great 
pleasure. The Earl of Angus at this period left 
the court for Lothian, where he had some urgent 
business — Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie went 
to Dundee, to visit a lady to whom he was at- 
tached — and George Douglas had gone to St. 
Andrews, to extort some farther advantages from 
Chancelor Beaton, who was now archbishop of 
that see, and primate of Scotland. There was 
thus none of the Douglasses left about the King's 
person, except Parkhead, with his guard of one 
hundred men, in whose vigilance the others con- 
fided. 

The King thought the time favorable for his 



232 Stories From Scottish History 

escape. To lay all suspicion asleep, he pre- 
tended he was to rise next morning at an early 
hour, for the purpose of hunting the stag. 
Douglas of Parkhead, suspecting nothing, re- 
tired to bed after placing his watch. But the 
King was no sooner in his private chamber, than 
he called a trusty page, named John Hart : — 
" Jockie," said he, " dost thou love me ? " 

" Better than myself," answered the domestic. 

" And wilt thou risk anything for me ? " 

" My life, with pleasure," said John Hart. 

The King then explained his purpose, and 
dressing himself in the attire of a groom, he 
went with Hart to the stable, as if for the pur- 
pose of getting the horses ready for the next 
day's hunt. The guards, deceived by their ap- 
pearance, gave them no interruption. At the 
stables three good horses were saddled and in 
readiness, under charge of a yeoman, or groom, 
whom the King had intrusted with his design. 

James mounted with his two servants, and gal- 
loped, during the whole night, as eager as a bird 
just escaped from a cage. At daylight he reached 
the bridge of Stirling, which was the only mode 
of passing the river Forth, except by boats. It 
was defended by gates, which the King, after 
passing through them, ordered to be closed, and 



A Dash for Liberty 233 

directed the passage to be watched. He was a 
weary man when he reached Stirling Castle, 
where he was joyfully received by the governor 
whom his mother had placed in that strong 
fortress. The drawbridges were raised, the port- 
cullises dropped, guards set, and every measure 
of defence and precaution resorted to. But the 
King was so much afraid of again falling into 
the hands of the Douglasses, that, tired as he 
was, he would not go to sleep until the keys of 
the castle were placed in his own keeping, and 
laid underneath his pillow. 

In the morning there was great alarm at Falk- 
land. Sir George Douglas had returned thither, 
on the night of the King's departure, about 
eleven o'clock. On his arrival, he inquired after 
the King, and was answered by the porter as well 
as the watchman upon guard, that he was sleep- 
ing in his chamber, as he intended to hunt early 
in the morning. Sir George therefore retired to 
rest in full security. But the next morning he 
learned different tidings. One Peter Carmichael, 
bailie of Abernethy, knocked at the door of his 
chamber, and asked him if he knew " what the 
King was doing that morning?" 

" He is in his chamber asleep," said Sir George. 

•' You are mistaken," answered Carmichael; 



234 Stories From Scottish History 

" he passed the bridge of Stirling this last 
night." 

On hearing this, Douglas started up in haste, 
went to the King's chamber, and knocked for 
admittance. When no answer was returned, he 
caused the door to be forced, and when he found 
the apartment empty, he cried, " Treason ! — The 
King is gone, and none knows whither." Then 
he sent post to his brother, the Earl of Angus, 
and despatched messengers in every direction, to 
seek the King, and to assemble the Douglasses. 

When the truth became known, the adherents 
of Angus rode in a body to Stirling; but the 
King was so far from desiring to receive them, 
that he threatened, by sound of trumpet, to de- 
clare any of the name of Douglas a traitor who 
should approach within twelve miles of his per- 
son, or who should presume to meddle with 
the administration of government. Some of the 
Douglasses inclined to resist this proclamation ; 
but the Earl of Angus and his brother resolved 
to obey it, and withdrew to Linlithgow. 

Soon afterward, the King assembled around 
him the numerous nobility, who envied the power 
of Angus, or had suffered injuries at his hands ; 
and, in open parliament, accused him of treason, 
declaring, that he had never been sure of his life 



A Dash for Liberty 235 

all the while that he was in his power. A sen- 
tence of forfeiture was, therefore, passed against 
the Earl of Angus, and he was driven into exile, 
with all his friends and kinsmen. James V re- 
tained, during his whole life, an implacable 
resentment against the Douglasses, and never 
permitted one of the name to settle in Scotland 
while he lived. 

He persevered in this resolution even under 
circumstances which rendered his unrelenting 
resentment ungenerous. Archibald Douglas of 
Kilspindie, the Earl of Angus's uncle, had been 
a personal favorite of the King before the dis- 
grace of his family. He was so much recom- 
mended to James by his great strength, manly 
appearance, and skill in every kind of Avarlike 
exercise, that he was wont to call him his Gray- 
steil, after the name of a champion in a romance 
then popular. Archibald, becoming rather an 
old man, and tired of his exile in England, re- 
solved to try the King's mercy. He thought 
that as they had been so well acquainted for- 
merly, and as he had never offended James 
personally, he might find favor from their old 
intimacy. He therefore threw himself in the 
King's way one day as he returned from hunting 
in the park at Stirling. It was several years 



236 Stones From Scottish History 

since James had seen him, but he knew him at a 
great distance, by his firm and stately step, and 
said, " Yonder is my Graysteii, Archibald of Kil- 
spindie." But when they met he showed no 
appearance of recognizing his old servant. Doug- 
las turned, and still hoping to obtain a glance of 
favorable recollection, ran along by the King's 
side ; and although James trotted his horse hard 
against the hill, and Douglas wore a heavy shirt 
of mail under his clothes, for fear of assassination, 
yet Graysteii was at the castle gate as soon as 
the King. James passed him, and entered the 
castle; but Douglas, exhausted with exertion, 
sat down at the gate and asked for a cup of 
wine. The hatred of the King against the name 
of Douglas was so well known, that no domestic 
about the court dared procure for the old warrior 
even this trifling refreshment. The King blamed, 
indeed, his servants for their discourtesy, and 
even said, that but for his oath never to employ 
a Douglas, he would have received Archibald of 
Kilspindie into his service, as he had formerly 
known him a man of great ability. Yet he sent 
his commands to his poor Graysteii to retire to 
France, where he died heart-broken soon after- 
ward. Even Henry VIII of England, himself of 



A Dash for Liberty 237 

an unforgiving temper, blamed the implacability 
of James on this occasion, and quoted an old 
proverb, — 

"A king's face 
Should give grace." 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
JOHN ARMSTRONG 

To seek het water beneath cauid ice, 
Surely it is a great follie : 
I have ask'd grace at a graceless face, 
But there is nane for my men and me. 
But had I kenn'd ere I came frae hame, 
How unkind thou wou'dst been to me, 
I wou'd ha'e keepit the Border side, 
In spite of all thy force and thee. 

— Ballad of Johnnie Armstrong. 

FREED from the stern control of the 
Douglas family, James V now began to 
exercise the government in person, and 
displayed most of the qualities of a wise and 
good prince. He was handsome in his person, 
and resembled his father in the fondness for mil- 
itary exercises, and the spirit of chivalrous honor 
which James IV loved to display. He also in- 
herited his father's love of justice, and his desire 
to establish and enforce wise and equal laws, 
which should protect the weak against the op- 
pression of the great. It was easy enough to 
make laws, but to put them in vigorous exercise 
238 



John Armstrong 239 

was of much greater difficulty ; and in his at- 
tempt to accomplish this laudable purpose, James 
often incurred the ill-will of the more powerful 
nobles. He was a well-educated and accom- 
plished man ; and like his ancestor, James I, was 
a poet and a musician. He had, however, his 
defects. He avoided his father's failing of pro- 
fusion, having no hoarded treasures to employ 
on pomp and show; but he rather fell into the 
opposite fault, being of a temper too parsimo- 
nious ; and though he loved state and display, he 
endeavored to gratify that taste as economically 
as possible, so that he has been censured as rather 
close and covetous. But, on the whole, James V 
was an amiable man, and a good sovereign. 

His first care was to bring the Borders of Scot- 
land to some degree of order. These, as you 
were formerly told, were inhabited by tribes of 
men, forming each a different clan, as they were 
called, and obeying no orders, save those which 
were given by their chiefs. These chiefs were 
supposed to represent the first founder of the 
name, or family. The attachment of the clans- 
men to their chief was very great : indeed, they 
paid respect to no one else. In this the Bor- 
derers agreed with the Highlanders, as also in 
their love of plunder, and neglect of the general 



240 Stories From Scottish History 

laws of the country. But the Border men wore no 
tartan dress, and served almost always on horse- 
back, whereas the Highlanders acted always on 
foot. 

The situation of these clans on the frontiers 
exposed them to constant war ; so that they 
thought of nothing else but of collecting bands 
of their followers together, and making incur- 
sions, without much distinction, on the English, 
on the Lowland (or inland) Scots, or upon each 
other. They paid little respect either to times of 
truce or treaties of peace, but exercised their 
depredations without regard to either, and often 
occasioned wars between England and Scotland 
which would not otherwise have taken place. 

It is said of a considerable family on the Bor- 
ders, that when they had consumed all the cattle 
about the castle, a pair of spurs was placed on 
the table in a covered dish, as a hint that they 
must ride out and fetch more. The chiefs and 
leading men told down their daughter's portions 
according to the plunder which they were able to 
collect in the course of a Michaelmas moon, 
when its prolonged light allowed them opportu- 
nity for their freebooting excursions. They were 
very brave in battle, but in time of peace they 
were a pest to their Scottish neighbors. As their 



John Armstrong 241 

insolence had risen to a high pitch after the field 
of Flodden had thrown the country into con- 
fusion, James V resolved to take very severe 
measures against them. 

James then assembled an army, in which war- 
like purposes were united with those of silvan 
sport ; for he ordered all the gentlemen in the 
wild districts which he intended to visit, to bring 
in their best dogs, as if his only purpose had 
been to hunt the deer in those desolate regions. 
This was intended to prevent the Borderers from 
taking the alarm, in which case they would have 
retreated into their mountains and fastnesses, 
from whence it would have been difficult to dis- 
lodge them. 

These men had indeed no distinct idea of the 
offences which they had committed, and conse- 
quently no apprehension of the King's displeas- 
ure against them. The laws had been so long 
silent in that remote and disorderly country, that 
the outrages which were practised by the strong 
against the weak, seemed to the perpetrators the 
natural course of society, and to present nothing 
that was worthy of punishment. 

Thus, as the King, in the beginning of his ex- 
pedition, suddenly approached the castle of Piers 
Cockburn of Henderland, that baron was in the 



242 Stories From Scottish History 

act of providing a great entertainment to wel- 
come him, when James caused him to be sud- 
denly seized on, and executed. Adam Scott of 
Tushielaw, called the King of the Border, met 
the same fate. But an event of greater impor- 
tance was the fate of John Armstrong of Gil- 
nockie, near Langholm. 

This freebooti ng chief had risen to great con- 
sequence, and the whole neighboring district of 
England paid him black mail, that is, a sort of 
tribute, in consideration of which he forbore 
plundering them. He had a high idea of his own 
importance, and seems to have been unconscious 
of having merited any severe usage at the King's 
hands. On the contrary, he came to meet his 
sovereign at a place about ten miles from Hawick, 
called Carlinrigg chapel, richly dressed, and hav- 
ing with him twenty-four gentlemen, his constant 
retinue, as well attired as himself. The King, in- 
censed to see a freebooter so gallantly equipped, 
commanded him instantly to be led to execution, 
saying, " What wants this knave, save a crown, 
to be as magnificent as a king?" John Arm- 
strong made great offers for his life, offering to 
maintain himself, with forty men, ready to serve 
the King at a moment's notice, at his own ex- 
pense ; engaging never to hurt or injure any 



John Armstrong 243 

Scottish subject, as indeed had never been his 
practice ; and undertaking, that there was not a 
man in England, of whatever degree, duke, earl, 
lord, or baron, but he would engage, within a 
short time, to present him to the King, dead or 
alive. But when the King would listen to none 
of his offers, the robber-chief said, very proudly, 
" I am but a fool to ask grace at a graceless face ; 
but had I guessed you would have used me thus, 
I would have kept the Border-side, in despite of 
the King of England and you both ; for I well 
know that King Henry would give the weight of 
my best horse in gold to know that I am sen- 
tenced to die this day." 

John Armstrong was led to execution, with all 
his men, and hanged without mercy. The peo- 
ple of the inland counties were glad to be rid of 
him ; but on the Borders he was both missed and 
mourned, as a brave warrior, and a stout man-at- 
arms against England. 

Such were the effects of the terror struck by 
these general executions, that James was said to 
have made " the rush bush keep the cow " ; that 
is to say, that even in this lawless part of the 
country, men dared no longer make free with 
property, and cattle might remain on their pas- 
tures unwatched. 



CHAPTER XXIX 
THE GOODMAN OF BALLENGIECH 

When disguised I stray 
In life's more low but happier way, 
'Tis under name which veils my power. 

Thus watch I o'er insulted laws, 
Thus learn to right the injured cause. 

—Scott. 

JAMES V had a custom of going about the 
country disguised as a private person, in 
order that he might hear complaints which 
might not otherwise reach his ears, and perhaps, 
that he might enjoy amusements which he could 
not have partaken of in his avowed royal charac- 
ter. This is also said to have been a custom of 
James IV, his father, and several adventures are 
related, of what befel them on such occasions. 

When the King traveled in disguise, he used a 
name which was known only to some of his 
principal nobility and attendants. He was called 
the Goodman (the tenant that is) of Ballengiech. 
Ballengiech is a steep pass which leads down be- 
244 



The Goodman of Ballengiech 245 

hind the castle of Stirling. Once upon a time, 
when the court was feasting in Stirling, the King 
sent for some venison from the neighboring hills. 
The deer were killed, and put on horses' backs to 
be transported to Stirling. Unluckily they had 
to pass the castle gates of Arnpryor, belonging 
to a chief of the Buchanans, who chanced to have 
a considerable number of guests with him. It 
was late, and the company were rather short of 
victuals, though they had more than enough of 
liquor. The chief, seeing so much fat venison 
passing his very door, seized on it ; and to the 
expostulations of the keepers, who told him it 
belonged to King James, he answered insolently, 
that if James was King in Scotland, he, Bu- 
chanan, was king in Kippen ; being the name of 
the district in which the castle of Arnpryor lay. 
On hearing what had happened, the King got on 
horseback, and rode instantly from Stirling to 
Buchanan's house, where he found a strong fierce- 
looking Highlander, with an axe on his shoulder, 
standing sentinel at the door. This grim warder 
refused the King admittance, saying, that the 
laird of Arnpryor was at dinner, and would not 
be disturbed. " Yet go up to the company, my 
good friend," said the King, " and tell him that 
the Goodman of Ballengiech is come to feast with 



246 Stories From Scottish History 

the King of Kippen." The porter went grum- 
bling into the house, and told his master that 
there was a fellow with a red beard at the gate, 
who called himself the Goodman of Ballengiech, 
who said he was come to dine with the King of 
Kippen. As soon as Buchanan heard these 
words, he knew that the King was come in per- 
son, and hastened down to kneel at James's feet, 
and to ask forgiveness for his insolent behavior. 
But the King, who only meant to give him a 
fright, forgave him freely, and going into the 
castle, feasted on his own venison which Bu- 
chanan had intercepted. Buchanan of Arnpryor 
was ever afterward called the King of Kippen. 

Upon another occasion, King James, being 
alone and in disguise, fell into a quarrel with 
some gipsies, or other vagrants, and was assaulted 
by four or five of them. This chanced to be very 
near the bridge of Cramond ; so the King got on 
the bridge, which, as it was high and narrow, 
enabled him to defend himself with his sword 
against the number of persons by whom he was 
attacked. There was a poor man thrashing corn 
in a barn near by, who came out on hearing the 
noise of the scuffle, and seeing one man defend- 
ing himself against numbers, gallantly took the 
King's part with his flail, to such good purpose, 



The Goodman of Ballengiech 247 

that the gipsies were obliged to fly. The hus- 
bandman then took the King into the barn, 
brought him a towel and water to wash the blood 
from his face and hands, and finally walked with 
him a little way toward Edinburgh, in case he 
should be again attacked. On the way, the 
King asked his companion what and who he 
was. The laborer answered, that his name was 
John Hovvieson, and that he was a bondsman on 
the farm of Braehead, near Cramond, which be- 
longed to the King of Scotland. James then 
asked the poor man, if there was any wish in the 
world which he would particularly desire should 
be gratified ; and honest John confessed, he 
should think himself the happiest man in Scot- 
land were he but proprietor of the farm on which 
he wrought as a laborer. He then asked the 
King, in turn, who he was ; and James replied, as 
usual, that he was the Goodman of Ballengiech, 
a poor man who had a small appointment about 
the palace ; but he added, that if John Howieson 
would come to see him on the next Sunday, he 
would endeavor to repay his manful assistance, 
and, at least, give him the pleasure of seeing the 
royal apartments. 

John put on his best clothes, as you may sup- 
pose, and appearing at a postern gate of the pal- 



248 Stories From Scottish History- 
ace, inquired for the Goodman of Ballengiech. 
The King had given orders that he should be ad- 
mitted ; and John found his friend, the goodman, 
in the same disguise which he had formerly worn. 
The King, still preserving the character of an in- 
ferior officer of the household, conducted John 
Howieson from one apartment of the palace to 
another, and was amused with his wonder and 
his remarks. At length, James asked his visitor 
if he should like to see the King; to which John 
replied, nothing would delight him so much, if 
he could do so without giving offence. The 
Goodman of Ballengiech, of course, undertook 
that the King would not be angry. " But," said 
John, " how am I to know his grace from the no- 
bles who will be all about him ? " — " Easily," re- 
plied his companion ; " all the others will be un- 
covered — the King alone will wear his hat or 
bonnet." 

So speaking, King James introduced the coun- 
tryman into a great hall, which was filled by the 
nobility and officers of the crown. John was a 
little frightened, and drew close to his attendant ; 
but was still unable to distinguish the King. " I 
told you that you should know him by his wear- 
ing his hat," said the conductor. " Then," said 
John, after he had again looked round the room, 



The Goodman of Ballengiech 249 

" it must be either you or me, for all but us two 
are bareheaded." 

The King laughed at John's fancy ; and that 
the good yeoman might have occasion for mirth 
also, he made him a present of the farm of Brae- 
head, which he had wished so much to possess, 
on condition that John Howieson, or his suc- 
cessors, should be ready to present an ewer and 
basin for the King to wash his hands, when his 
Majesty should come to Holyrood Palace, or 
should pass the bridge of Cramond. 

This active and patriotic Prince ordered the 
mineral wealth of Scotland to be also inquired 
into, He obtained miners from Germany, who 
extracted both silver and gold from the mines of 
Leadhills, in the upper part of Clydesdale. The 
gold was of fine quality, and found in quantity 
sufficient to supply metal for a very elegant gold 
coin, which, bearing on one side the head of 
James V wearing a bonnet, has been thence called 
the bonnet-piece. It is said, that upon one occa- 
sion the King invited the ambassadors of Spain, 
France, and other foreign countries, to hunt with 
him in Crawford Moor, the district in which lie 
the mines I have just mentioned. They dined in 
the castle of Crawford, a rude old fortress. The 
King made some apology for the dinner, which 



250 Stories From Scottish History 

was composed of the game they had killed during 
the hunting and hawking of the day, but he as- 
sured his guests that the dessert would make them 
some amends, as he had given directions that it 
should consist of the finest fruits which the coun- 
try afforded. The foreigners looked at each 
other in surprise, on hearing the King talk of 
fruits being produced amid the black moors and 
barren mountains around them. But the dessert 
made its appearance in the shape of a number of 
covered saucers, one of which was placed before 
each guest, and being examined was found full 
of gold bonnet-pieces, which they were desired 
to accept as the fruit produced by the mountains 
of Crawford Moor. This new sort of dessert was 
no doubt as acceptable as the most delicate fruits 
of a southern climate. 



CHAPTER XXX 
WISHART AND BEATON 

When hope fails, then vengeance burnetii. 



■Stevens. 



WHEN James died in 1542, leaving the 
kingdom to his infant daughter Mary, 
the Scottish affairs were managed al- 
most entirely by Cardinal Beaton, a statesman 
of great abilities, but a bigoted Catholic, and a 
man of a severe temper. Many cruelties were 
exercised ; but that which excited public feeling 
to the highest degree, was the barbarous death 
of George Wishart. 

This martyr to the cause of Reformation was a 
man of honorable birth, great wisdom and elo- 
quence, and of primitive piety. He preached the 
doctrines of the Reformed religion with zeal and 
with success, and was for some time protected 
against the efforts of the vengeful Catholics by 
the barons who had become converts to the Prot- 
estant faith. At length, however, he fell into the 
hands of the Cardinal, being surrendered to him 
by Loid Both well, and was conveyed to the cas- 
251 



2 $2 Stories From Scottish History 

tie of St. Andrews, a strong fortress and palace 
belonging to the Cardinal as archbishop, and 
there thrown into a dungeon. Wishart was then 
brought to a public trial, for heresy, before the 
Spiritual Court, where the Cardinal presided. He 
was accused of preaching heretical doctrine, by 
two priests, called Lauder and Oliphant, whose 
outrageous violence was strongly contrasted with 
the patience and presence of mind shown by the 
prisoner. He appealed to the authority of the 
Bible against that of the church of Rome ; but 
his judges were little disposed to listen to his ar- 
guments, and he was condemned to be burned 
alive. The place of execution was opposite to 
the stately castle of the Cardinal, and Beaton him- 
self sat upon the walls, which were hung with 
tapestry, to behold the death of his heretical pris- 
oner. The spot was also carefully chosen, that 
the smoke of the pile might be seen as far as pos- 
sible, to spread the greater terror. Wishart was 
then brought out, and fastened to a stake with 
iron chains. He was clad in a buckram garment, 
and several bags of gunpowder were tied round 
his body to hasten the operation of the fire. A 
quantity of fagots were disposed around the pile. 
While he stood in expectation of his cruel death, 
he cast his eyes toward his enemy the Cardinal, 



Wishart and Beaton 253 

as he sat on the battlements of the castle, enjoy- 
ing the dreadful scene. 

" Captain," he said to him who commanded 
the guard, " may God forgive yonder man, who 
lies so proudly on the wall — within a few days 
he shall be seen lying there in as much shame as 
he now shows pomp and vanity." 

The pile was then fired, the powder exploded, 
the flames arose, and Wishart was dismissed by 
a painful death to a blessed immortality. 

Perhaps the last words of Wishart, which 
seemed to contain a prophetic spirit, incited 
some men to revenge his death. At any rate, 
the burning of that excellent person greatly in- 
creased the public detestation against the Car- 
dinal, and a daring man stood forth to gratify 
the general desire, by putting him to death. 
This was Norman Leslie, called the Master of 
Rothes, the same who led the men of Fife, at 
the battle of Ancrammoor. It appears, that be- 
sides his share of the common hatred of the Car- 
dinal as a persecutor, he had some private feud 
or cause of quarrel with him. With no more 
than sixteen men, Leslie undertook to assault 
the Cardinal in his own castle, among his numer- 
ous guards and domestics. It chanced that, as 
many workmen were still employed in laboring 



254 Stories From Scottish History 

upon the fortifications of the castle, the wicket of 
the castle-gate was open early in the morning, 
to admit them to their work. The conspirators 
took advantage of this, and obtained possession 
of the entrance. Having thus gained admittance, 
they seized upon the domestics of the Cardinal, 
and turned them one by one out of the castle, 
then hastened to the Cardinal's chamber, who 
had fastened the door. He refused them en- 
trance, until they threatened to apply fire, when, 
learning that Norman Leslie was without, the 
despairing prelate at length undid the door, and 
asked for mercy. Melville, one of the conspira- 
tors, told him he should only have such mercy 
as he had extended to George Wishart, and the 
other servants of God, who had been slain by his 
orders. He then, with his sword pointed to 
his breast, bade the Cardinal say his prayers to 
God, for his last hour was come. The conspira- 
tors now proceeded to stab their victim, and 
afterward dragged the dead body to the walls, to 
show it to the citizens of St. Andrews, his clients 
and dependents, who came in fury to demand 
what had become of their bishop. Thus his dead 
body really came to lie with open shame upon 
the very battlements of his own castle, where he 
had sat in triumph to behold Wishart's execution. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

QUEEN MARY'S YOUTH 

Brief was her bloom with scarce one sunny day 
'Twixt Pinkie's field and fatal Fotheringay. 

—Glasford Bell. 

THE evil fortunes of Mary Stewart, who 
succeeded her father in the crown of 
Scotland, commenced at her very birth, 
and could scarce be considered as ceasing during 
the whole period of her life. Of all the unhappy 
princesses of the line of Stewart, she was the most 
uniformly unfortunate. She was born on the 7th 
December, 1542, and, in a few days after, be- 
came, by her father's death, the infant queen of a 
distracted country. 

Henry VIII of England formed a plan of unit- 
ing the kingdoms of England and Scotland by a 
marriage between the infant Queen of Scotland 
and his only son Edward VI, then a child. But 
the impatient temper of the English monarch 
ruined his own scheme. He demanded the cus- 
tody of the young Queen of Scotland till she 
255 



256 Stories From Scottish History 

should be of age to complete the marriage to be 
contracted by the present league, and he insisted 
that some of the strongest forts in the kingdom 
should be put into his hands. These proposals 
alarmed the national jealousy of the Scots, and 
the characteristic love of independence and lib- 
erty which we find that people have always dis- 
played. The Scots resolved to prevent such a 
union by marrying their young mistress to the 
Dauphin, that is, the eldest son of the King of 
France, and sending her to be brought up at the 
French court. The young Queen was em- 
barked on board the French galleys in July, 1548, 
accompanied by four young ladies of quality of 
her own age, destined to be her playfellows in 
childhood, and her companions when she grew up. 
They all bore the same name with their mistress, 
and were called the Queen's Maries. Francis 
and Mary were married in 1558, and two years 
later Francis died. During her husband's life- 
time Mary exercised a great authority in France, 
for she possessed unbounded influence over his 
mind. After his death that influence and au- 
thority ceased. It must have been painful to a 
lofty mind like Mary's thus to endure coldness 
and neglect in the place where she had met with 
honor and obedience. She retired, therefore, 



Oueen Mary's Youth 257 

from the court of France, and determined to 
return to her native kingdom of Scotland. 

Mary Stewart, the Queen Dowager of France 
and the hereditary Queen of Scotland, was ac- 
counted the most beautiful and accomplished 
woman of her time. Her countenance was 
lovely ; she was tall, well-formed, elegant in 
all her motions, skilled in the exercises of riding 
and dancing, and possessed of all the female 
accomplishments which were in fashion at that 
period. Her education in France had been care- 
fully attended to, and she had profited by the 
instruction she enjoyed. She was mistress of 
several languages, and understood state affairs, 
in which her husband had often followed her 
advice. The beauty of Mary was enhanced by 
her great condescension, and by the good hu- 
mor and gaiety which she sometimes carried to 
the verge of excess. Her youth, for she was 
only eighteen when she returned to Scotland, 
increased the liveliness of her disposition. The 
Catholic religion, in which she had been strictly 
educated, was a great blemish in the eyes of her 
people; but on the whole the nation expected 
her return with more hope and joy, than Mary 
herself entertained at the thought of exchanging 
the fine climate of France and the gaieties of 



258 Stories From Scottish History 

its court, for the rough tempests and turbu- 
lent politics of her native country. 

Mary set sail from France on 15th August, 
1 561. The English fleet was at sea, and there is 
great reason to believe that it had a purpose of 
intercepting the Queen of Scots, as a neighbor 
whose return was dreaded by Elizabeth. Occu- 
pied with anxious forebodings, the Queen re- 
mained on the deck of her galley, gazing on the 
coasts of France. Morning found her in the 
same occupation ; and when they vanished from 
her eyes, she exclaimed in sorrow, " Farewell, 
farewell, happy France; I shall never see thee 
more ! " 

She passed the English fleet under cover of a 
mist, and arrived at Leith on the 19th August, 
where little or no preparation had been made for 
her honorable reception. Such of the nobles as 
were in the capital hastened, however, to wait 
upon their young Queen, and convey her to 
Holyrood, the palace of her ancestors. Horses 
were provided to bring her and her train to 
Edinburgh ; but they were wretched ponies, and 
had such tattered furniture and accoutrements, 
that poor Mary, when she thought of the splendid 
palfreys and rich appointments at the court of 
France, could not forbear shedding tears. The 



Queen Mary's Youth 259 

people were, however, in their way, rejoiced to 
see her ; and about two hundred citizens of 
Edinburgh, each doing his best upon a three- 
stringed fiddle, played under her window all 
night, by way of welcome — a noisy serenade, 
which deprived her of sleep after her fatigue. 
She took it as it was meant, nevertheless, and ex- 
pressed her thanks to the perpetrators of this 
mistuned and mistimed concert. 

Mary behaved with admirable prudence in the 
early years of her reign. She enchanted the 
common people by her grace and condescension, 
and while she sat in council, usually employed 
in some female work, she gained credit for her 
wisdom among the statesmen whom she con- 
sulted. 

But a fatal crisis approached, which was even- 
tually to plunge her into the utmost misery. She 
had no children by her deceased husband, the 
King of France, and her subjects were desirous 
that she should marry a second husband, a pur- 
pose which she herself entertained and encouraged. 
Her views turned toward a young nobleman of 
high birth, nearly connected both with her own 
family and that of Elizabeth. This was Henry 
Stewart, Lord Darnley, eldest son of the Earl of 
Lennox. 



260 Stories From Scottish History- 
Young Darnley was remarkably tall and hand- 
some, perfect in all external and showy accom- 
plishments, but unhappily destitute of sagacity, 
prudence, steadiness of character, and exhibiting 
only doubtful courage, though extremely violent 
in his passions. Had this young man possessed 
a very moderate portion of sense, or even of grati- 
tude, we might have had a different story to tell 
of Mary's reign — as it was, you will hear a very 
melancholy one. 

Darnley, endeavoring to strengthen the interest 
which he had acquired in the Queen's affections, 
had recourse to the friendship of a man, of low 
rank, indeed, but who was understood to possess 
particular influence over the mind of Mary. This 
was an Italian of humble origin, called David 
Rizzio, who had been promoted from being a 
menial in the Queen's family, to the confidential 
office of French secretary. His talents for music 
gave him frequent admission to Mary's presence, 
as she delighted in that art; and his address, and 
arts of insinuation, gained him a considerable 
influence over her mind. It was almost neces- 
sary that the Queen should have near her person 
some confidential officer, skilled at once in lan- 
guages and in business, through whom she might 
communicate with foreign states, and with her 



Queen Mary's Youth 261 

friends in France in particular. No such agent 
was likely to be found in Scotland, unless she 
had chosen a Catholic priest, which would have 
given more offence to her Protestant subjects, 
than even the employment of a man like Rizzio. 
Still the elevation of this person, a stranger, a 
Catholic, and a man of mean origin, to the rank of 
a minister of the crown — and, yet more, the per- 
sonal familiarity to which the Queen condescended 
to admit him, and the airs of importance which 
this low-born foreigner pretended to assume, 
became the subject of offence to the proud Scot- 
tish nobles, and of vulgar scandal among the com- 
mon peopkc 

Darnley, anxious to strengthen his interest 
with the Queen on every hand, formed an inti- 
macy with Rizzio, who employed all the arts of 
flattery and observance to gain possession of his 
favor, and unquestionably was serviceable to him 
in advancing his suit. The Queen, in the mean- 
while, exerted herself to remove the obstacles to 
her union with Darnley, and with such success, 
that, with the approbation of far the greater part 
of her subjects, they were married at Edinburgh 
on the 29th July, 1565. 

Mary soon found that she had a formidable 
enemy in the foolish and passionate husband 



262 Stories From Scottish History 

whom she had chosen. This headstrong young 
man behaved to his wife with great disrespect, 
both as a woman and as a queen, and gave him- 
self up to intoxication, and other disgraceful 
vices. Although already possessed of more 
power than fitted his capacity or age, for he was 
but nineteen, he was importunate in his demands 
for obtaining what was called in Scotland the 
Crown Matrimonial ; that is, the full equality of 
royal right in the crown with his consort. Until 
he obtained this eminence he was not held to be 
King, though called so in courtesy. He was only 
the husband of the Queen. 

This crown matrimonial had been bestowed on 
Mary's first husband, Francis, and Darnley was 
determined to be possessed of the same rank. 
But Mary, whose bounty had already far ex- 
ceeded his deserts, as well as his gratitude, was 
resolved not to make this last concession, at 
least without the advice and consent of the Par- 
liament. 

The childish impatience of Darnley made him 
regard with mortal hatred whatever interfered 
with the instant execution of his wishes ; and his 
animosity on this occasion turned against the 
Italian secretary, once his friend, but whom he 
now esteemed his deadly foe, because he sup- 



Queen Mary's Youth 263 

posed that Rizzio encouraged the Queen in re- 
sisting his hasty ambition. His resentment 
against the unhappy stranger arose to such a 
height, that he threatened to poniard him with 
his own hand ; and as Rizzio had many enemies, 
and no friend save his mistress, Darnley easily pro- 
cured instruments, and those of no mean rank, to 
take the execution of his revenge on themselves. 

The chief of Darnley's accomplices, on this 
unhappy occasion, was James Douglas, Earl of 
Morton, chancellor of the kingdom, tutor and 
uncle to the Earl of Angus (who chanced then to 
be a minor), and administrator, therefore, of all 
the power of the great house of Douglas. He 
was a nobleman of high military talent and great 
political wisdom ; but although a pretender to 
sanctity of life, his actions show him to have 
been a wicked and unscrupulous man. Notwith- 
standing he was chancellor of the kingdom, and 
therefore bound peculiarly to respect the laws, 
he did not hesitate to enter into Darnley's 
cruel and unlawful purpose. Lord Ruthven too, 
whose frame was exhausted by illness, neverthe- 
less undertook to buckle on his armor for the en- 
terprise ; and they had no difficulty in finding 
other agents. 

It would have been easy to have seized on 



264 Stories From Scottish History 

Rizzio, and disposed of him as the Scottish peers 
at the bridge of Lauder used the favorites of 
James III. But this would not have accom- 
plished the revenge of Darnley, who complained 
that the Queen showed this mean Italian more 
civility than she did to himself, and therefore took 
the barbarous resolution of seizing him in her 
very presence. 

Queen Mary, like her father, James V, was 
fond of laying aside the state of a sovereign, and 
indulging in small private parties, quiet, as she 
termed them, and merry. On these occasions, 
she admitted her favorite domestics to her table, 
and Rizzio seems frequently to have had that 
honor. On the 9th of March, 1566, six persons 
had partaken of supper in a small cabinet adjoin- 
ing to the Queen's bedchamber, and having no 
entrance save through it. Rizzio was of the 
number. About seven in the evening, the gates 
of the palace were occupied by Morton, with a 
party of two hundred men ; and a select band of 
the conspirators, headed by Darnley himself, 
came into the Queen's apartment by a secret 
staircase. Darnley first entered the cabinet, and 
stood for an instant in silence, gloomily eyeing 
his victim. Lord Ruthven followed in complete 
armor, looking pale and ghastly, as one scarcely 



Queen Mary's Youth 265 

recovered from long sickness. Others crowded 
in after them, till the little closet was full of armed 
men. While the Queen demanded the purpose 
of their coming, Rizzio, who saw that his life 
was aimed at, got behind her, and clasped the 
folds of her gown, that the respect due to her 
person might protect him. The assassins threw 
down the table, and seized on the unfortunate 
object of their vengeance, while Darnley himself 
took hold of the Queen, and forced Rizzio and 
her asunder. It was their intention, doubtless, to 
have dragged Rizzio out of Mary's presence, and 
to have killed him elsewhere ; but their fierce im- 
patience hurried them into instant murder. 
George Douglas, called the postulate of Ar- 
broath, a natural brother of the Earl of Morton, 
set the example, by snatching Darnley's dagger 
from his belt, and striking Rizzio with it. He 
received many other blows. They dragged him 
through the bedroom and antechamber, and de- 
spatched him at the head of the staircase, with 
no less than fifty-six wounds. Ruthven, after all 
was over, fatigued with his exertions, sat down 
in the Queen's presence, and, begging her pardon 
for the liberty, called for a drink to refresh him, 
as if he had been doing the most harmless thing 
in the world. 



266 Stories From Scottish History 

The witnesses, the actors, and the scene of this 
cruel tragedy, render it one of the most extraor- 
dinary which history records. The cabinet and 
the bedroom still remain in the same condition in 
which they were at the time ; and the floor near 
the head of the stair bears visible marks of the 
blood of the unhappy Rizzio. The Queen con- 
tinued to beg his life with prayers and tears ; but 
when she learned that he was dead, she dried her 
tears. — " I will now," she said, " study revenge." 



CHAPTER XXXII 

KIRK O' FIELD 

Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, 
Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd, 
No reckoning made, but sent to my account 
With all my imperfections on my head. 

— Shakespeare. 

THE conspirators, who had committed 
the cruel action entirely or chiefly to 
gratify Darnley, reckoned themselves, of 
course, secure of his protection. They united 
themselves with Murray and his associates, who 
were just returned from England according to 
appointment, and agreed upon a course of joint 
measures. The Queen, it was agreed, should be 
under restraint in Edinburgh Castle, or else- 
where; and Murray and Morton were to rule the 
state under the name of Darnley, who was to ob- 
tain the crown matrimonial, which he had so 
anxiously desired. But all this scheme was ruined 
by the defection of Darnley himself. As fickle 
as he was vehement, and as timorous as he had 
shown himself cruel, Rizzio was no sooner slain 
267 



268 Stories From Scottish History 

than Darnley became terrified at what had been 
done, and seemed much disposed to deny having 
given any authority for the crime. 

Finding her weak-minded husband in a state 
between remorse and fear, Mary prevailed on 
him to take part against the very persons whom 
he had instigated to the late atrocious proceed- 
ing. Darnley and Mary escaped together out of 
Holyroodhouse, and fled to Dunbar, where the 
Queen issued a proclamation which soon drew 
many faithful followers around her. 

Queen Mary was now once more in possession 
of authority, but much disturbed and vexed by 
the silly conduct of her husband, whose absurd- 
ities and insolences were not abated by the con- 
sequences of Rizzio's death ; so that the royal 
pair continued to be upon the worst terms with 
each other, though disguised under a species of 
reconciliation. 

On the 19th of June, 1566, a son, afterward 
James VI, was born to Queen Mary. After a 
splendid solemnity at christening the heir of 
Scotland, Queen Mary seems to have turned her 
mind toward settling the disorders of her nobility • 
and, sacrificing her own justifiable resentment, 
she yielded so far as to grant pardon to all those 
concerned in the murder of Rizzio. Two men 



Kirk O' Field 269 

of low rank, and 110 more, had been executed for 
that crime. Lord Ruthven, the principal actor, 
had died in England, talking and writing as com- 
posedly of " the slaughter of David," as if it had 
been the most indifferent, if not meritorious, 
action possible. George Douglas, who struck 
the first blow, and Ker of Faldonside, another 
ruffian who offered his pistol at the Queen's 
bosom in the fray, were exempted from the gen- 
eral pardon. Morton and all the others were 
permitted to return, to plan new treasons and 
murders. 

I shall endeavor to give you a simple outline 
of the facts, as they are admitted and proved on 
all sides. 

James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, a man in 
middle age, had for several years played a con- 
spicuous part in these troubled times. He had 
sided with the Queen Regent against the Re- 
formed party, and was in general supposed to be 
attached rather to the reigning Queen, than to 
any of the factions who opposed her. He was 
head of the powerful family of Hepburn, and 
possessed great influence in East-Lothian and 
Berwickshire, where excellent soldiers could 
always be obtained. In his morals Bothwell 
was wild and licentious, irregular and daring in 



270 Stories From Scottish History 

his ambition; and although his history does not 
show many instances of personal courage, yet in 
his early life he had the reputation of possessing 
it. He had been in danger on the occasion of 
Rizzio's murder, being supposed, from his regard 
for the Queen, to have been desirous of prevent- 
ing that cruel insult to her person and authority. 
As this nobleman displayed great zeal for Mary's 
cause, she was naturally led to advance him at 
court, until many persons, and particularly the 
preachers of the Reformed religion, thought that 
she admitted to too great intimacy a man of so 
fierce and profligate a character ; and a numerous 
party among her subjects accused the Queen of 
being fonder of Bothwell than was becoming. 

In the meantime, the dissensions between 
Darnley and the Queen continued to increase ; 
and while he must have been disliked by Mary 
from their numerous quarrels, and the affronts 
he put upon her, as well as from his share in 
the murder of Rizzio, those who had been con- 
cerned with him in that last crime, considered 
him as a poor mean-spirited wretch, who, having 
engaged his associates in so daring an act, had 
afterward betrayed and deserted them. His lat- 
ter conduct showed no improvement in either 
sense or spirit. He pretended he would leave 



Kirk C Field 271 

the kingdom, and by this and other capricious 
resolutions, hastily adopted and abandoned, he 
so far alienated the affections of the Queen, that 
many of the unscrupulous and plotting nobles, 
by whom she was surrounded, formed the idea, 
that it would be very agreeable to Mary if she 
could be freed from her union with this unrea 
sonable and ill-tempered young man. 

The first proposal made to her was, that she 
should be separated from Darnley by a divorce. 
Both well, Maitland, Morton, and Murray, are 
said to have joined in pressing such a proposal 
upon the Queen, who was then residing at Craig- 
millar Castle, near Edinburgh; but she rejected 
it steadily. A conspiracy of a darker kind was 
then agitated, for the murder of the unhappy 
Darnley ; and Bothwell seems to have enter- 
tained little doubt that Mary, thus rid of an 
unacceptable husband, would choose him for a 
successor. 

While these schemes were in agitation against 
his life, Darnley fell ill at Glasgow, and his indis- 
position proved to be the smallpox. The Queen 
sent her physician, and after an interval went 
herself to wait upon him, and an apparent recon- 
ciliation was affected between them. They came 
together to Edinburgh on the 31st January, 



272 Stories From Scottish History 

1566-67. Darnley was lodged in a religious 
house called the Kirk of Field, just without the 
walls of the city. The Queen and the infant 
Prince were accommodated in the palace of Holy- 
rood. The reason assigned for their living sep- 
arate was the danger of the child catching the 
smallpox. But the Queen showed much atten- 
tion to her husband, visiting him frequently ; and 
they never seemed to have been on better terms 
than when the conspiracy against "Darnley's life 
was on the eve of being executed. Meanwhile 
Darnley and his groom of the chamber wef e 
alone during the night time, and separated from 
any other persons, when measures were taken 
for his destruction in the following horrible 
manner : — 

On the evening of the 9th February, several 
persons, kinsmen, retainers, and servants of the 
Earl of Bothwell, came in secret to the Kirk of 
Field. They had with them a great quantity of 
gunpowder ; and by means of false keys they 
obtained entrance into the cellars of the building, 
where they disposed the powder in the vaults 
under Darnley 's apartment, and especially be- 
neath the spot where his bed was placed. About 
two hours after midnight upon the ensuing morn- 
ing, Bothwell himself came disguised in a riding- 



Kirk O' Field 273 

cloak, to see the execution of the cruel project. 
Two of his ruffians went in and took means of 
firing the powder, by lighting a piece of slow- 
burning match at one end, and placing the other 
among the gunpowder. They remained for some 
time watching the event, and Bothwell became 
so impatient, that it was with difficulty he was 
prevented from entering the house, to see whether 
the light had not been extinguished by some ac- 
cident. One of his accomplices, by looking 
through a window, ascertained that it was still 
burning. The explosion presently took place, 
blew up the Kirk of Field, and alarmed the whole 
city. The body of Darnley was found in the 
adjoining orchard. The bed in which he lay had 
preserved him from all action of the fire, which 
occasioned a general belief that he and his 
chamber-groom, who was found in the same sit- 
uation, had been strangled and removed before 
the house was blown up. But this was a mis- 
take. It is clearly proved, by the evidence of 
those who were present at the event, that there 
were no means employed but gunpowder — a 
mode of destruction sufficiently powerful to have 
rendered any other unnecessary. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 
THE EARL OF BOTHWELL 

Evil was his Good, 
For all too long in blood had he been nurst, 
And ne'er was earth with verier tyrant curst, 
Bold man and bad. 

— Southey. 

THE horrible murder of the unhappy 
Darnley excited the strongest suspicions, 
and the greatest discontent, in the city 
of Edinburgh, and through the whole kingdom. 
Bothwell was pointed out by the general voice 
as the author of the murder ; and as he still con- 
tinued to enjoy the favor of Mary, her reputa- 
tion was not spared. To have brought this pow- 
erful criminal to an open and impartial trial, 
would have been the only way for the Queen to 
recover her popularity ; and Mary made a show 
of doing this public justice, but under circum- 
stances which favored the criminal. 

Lennox, father of the murdered Darnley, 
had, as was his natural duty, accused Bothwell 
of the murder of his son. But he received 
274 



The Earl of Bothwell 275 

little countenance in prosecuting the accused. 
Everything seemed to be done as hastily as if it 
were determined to defeat the operations of 
justice. 

It was a usual thing in Scotland for persons 
accused of crimes, to come to the bar of a court 
of justice attended by all their friends, retainers, 
and dependents, the number of whom was fre- 
quently so great, that the judges and accusers 
were overawed, and became afraid to proceed in 
the investigation ; so that the purposes of justice 
were for the time frustrated. Bothwell, con- 
scious of guilt, was desirous to use this means of 
protection to the utmost. He appeared in Edin- 
burgh with full five thousand attendants. Two 
hundred chosen musketeers kept close by his 
side, and guarded the doors of the court as soon 
as the criminal had entered. In such circum- 
stances, there could be no chance of a fair trial. 
Lennox did not appear, saving by one of his 
vassals, who protested against the proceedings of 
the day. No charge was made, — no proof of in- 
nocence, of course, was required, — and a jury, 
consisting of nobles and gentlemen of the first 
rank, acquitted Bothwell of a crime of which all 
the world believed him to be guilty. 

The public mind remained dissatisfied with this 



276 Stories From Scottish History 

mockery of justice; but Bothwell, without 
regarding the murmurs of the people, hurried 
forward to possess himself of the situation 
which he had made vacant by the murder of 
Darnley. He convened a number of the prin- 
cipal nobility, at a feast given in a tavern, and 
prevailed on them to sign a bond, in which they 
not only declared Bothwell altogether innocent 
of the King's death, but recommended him as 
the fittest person whom her Majesty could 
choose for a husband. 

The Earl of Bothwell, thus authorized by the 
apparent consent of the nobility, and, no doubt, 
thinking himself secure of the Queen's appro- 
bation, suddenly appeared at the bridge of Cra- 
mond, with a thousand horse, as Mary arrived 
there on her return from Stirling to Edinburgh. 
Bothwell took the Queen's horse by the bridle, 
and surrounding and disarming her attendants, 
he led her, as if by an appearance of force, to 
the strong castle of Dunbar, of which he was 
governor. On this occasion Mary seems neither 
to have attempted to resist, nor to have expressed 
that feeling of anger and shame which would 
have been proper to her as a queen and as a 
woman. Her attendants were assured by the 
officers of Bothwell, that she was carried off in 



The Earl of Bothwell 277 

consequence of her own consent ; and consider- 
ing that such an outrage was offered to a sover- 
eign of her high rank and bold spirit, her tame 
submission and silence under it seem scarce 
otherwise to be accounted for. They remained 
at Dunbar ten days, after which they again ap- 
peared in Edinburgh, apparently reconciled; 
the Earl carefully leading the Queen's palfrey 
and conducting her up to the castle, the govern- 
ment of which was held by one of his adherents. 

While these strange proceedings took place, 
Bothwell had been able to procure a sentence of 
divorce against his wife, a sister of the Earl of 
Huntly. On the 12th of May, the Queen made 
a public declaration, that she foigave Bothwell 
the late violence which he had committed, and 
that, although she was at first highly displeased 
with him, she was now resolved not only to 
grant him her pardon, but also to promote him 
to further honors. She was as good as her 
word, for she created him Duke of Orkney ; and, 
on the 15th of the same month, did Mary, with 
unpardonable indiscretion, commit the great 
folly of marrying this ambitious and profligate 
man, stained as he was with the blood of her 
husband. 

The Queen was not long in discovering that 



278 Stories From Scottish History 

by this unhappy marriage she had gotten a more 
ruthless and wicked husband, than she had in the 
flexible Darnley. Bothwell used her grossly ill, 
and being disappointed in his plans of getting the 
young Prince into his keeping, used such upbraid- 
ing language to Mary that she prayed for a 
knife with which to stab herself, rather than en- 
dure his ill treatment. 

In the meantime, the public discontent rose 
high, and Morton, Maitland, and others, who had 
been privy to the murder of Darnley, placed 
themselves, notwithstanding, at the head of a 
numerous party of the nobility, who resolved to 
revenge his death, and remove Bothwell from his 
usurped power. They took arms hastily, and 
had nearly surprised the Queen and Bothwell, 
while feasting in the castle of the Lord Borth- 
wick, from whence they fled to Dunbar, the 
Queen being concealed in the disguise of a page. 

The confederated lords marched toward Dun- 
bar, and the Queen and Bothwell, having as- 
sembled an army, advanced to the encounter, 
and met them on Carberry Hill. This was on 
the 15th of June, 1567. Mary would have acted 
more wisely in postponing the threatened action, 
for the Hamiltons, in great force, were on their 
way to join her. But she had been accustomed 



The Earl of Bothwell 279 

to gain advantages by rapid and ready move- 
ments, and was not at first sufficiently aware 
what an unfavorable impression existed against 
her even in her own army. Many, if not most, 
of those troops who had joined the Queen, had 
little inclination to fight in Bothwell's cause. He 
himself, in a bravado, offered to prove his inno- 
cence of Darnley's murder, by a duel in the lists 
with any of the opposite lords who should affirm 
his guilt. The valiant Kirkaldy of Grange, Mur- 
ray of Tullibardin, and Lord Lindsay of the 
Byres, successively undertook the combat ; but 
Bothwell found exceptions to each of them, and, 
finally, it appeared that this wicked man had not 
courage to fight with any one in that quarrel. In 
the meantime, the Queen's army began to dis- 
band, and it became obvious that they would not 
fight in her cause while they considered it as the 
same with that of Bothwell. She therefore 
recommended to him to fly from the field of 
action ; an advice which he was not slow in fol- 
lowing, riding to Dunbar as fast as he could, and 
from thence escaping by sea. 

Mary surrendered herself, upon promise of re- 
spect and kind treatment, to the laird of Grange, 
and was conducted by him to the headquarters 
of the confederate army. When she arrived 



280 Stories From Scottish History 

there, the lords received her with silent respect ; 
but some of the common soldiers hooted at and 
insulted her, until Grange, drawing his sword, 
compelled them to be silent. The lords adopted 
the resolution of returning to the capital, and 
conveying Mary thither, surrounded by their 
troops. 

As the unhappy Queen approached Edin- 
burgh, led as it were in triumph by the victors, 
the most coarse and insulting behavior was used 
toward her by the lower classes. There was a 
banner prepared for this insurrection, displaying, 
on the one side, the portrait of Darnley, as he 
lay murdered under a tree in the fatal orchard, 
with these words embroidered, " Judge, and 
avenge my cause, O Lord ! " and on the other 
side, the little Prince on his knees, holding up 
his hands, as if praying to heaven to punish his 
father's murderers. As the Queen rode through 
the streets, with her hair loose, her garments dis- 
ordered, covered with dust, and overpowered with 
grief, shame and fatigue, this fatal flag was dis- 
played before her eyes, while the voices of the 
rude multitude upbraided her with having been 
an accomplice in Darnley 's murder. The same 
cries were repeated, and the same insulting ban- 
ner displayed, before the windows of the Lord 



The Earl of Both well 281 

Provost's house, to which she was for a few 
hours committed as if a prisoner. The better 
class of craftsmen and citizens were at length 
moved by her sorrows, and showed such a desire 
to take her part, that the Lords determined to 
remove her from the city, where respect to her 
birth and misfortunes seemed likely to create 
partisans, in spite of her own indiscretions, and 
the resentment of her enemies. Accordingly, on 
the next evening, being 16th June, 1567, Mary, 
in disguised apparel, and escorted by a strong 
armed force, was conveyed from Holyrood to the 
castle of Lochleven, which stands on a little 
island, surrounded by the lake of the same name, 
and was there detained a prisoner. 

Kirkaldy of Grange followed Bothwell with two 
vessels, and had nearly surprised him in the har- 
bor of Lerwick, the fugitive making his escape 
at one issue of the bay, while Grange entered at 
another; and Bothwell might even then have 
been captured, but that Grange's ship ran upon 
a rock, and was wrecked, though the crew es- 
caped. Bothwell was only saved for a more 
melancholy fate. He took to piracy in the 
Northern Seas, in order to support himself and 
his sailors. He was in consequence assaulted 
and taken by some Danish ships of war. The 



282 Stories From Scottish History 

Danes threw him into the dungeons of the castle 
of Malmay, where he died in captivity, about the 
end of the year 1576. It is said, that this atro- 
cious criminal confessed at his death, that he had 
conducted the murder of Darnley, by the as- 
sistance' of Murray, Maitland, and Morton, and 
that Mary was altogether guiltless of that crime. 
But there is little reliance to be placed on the 
declaration of so wicked a man, even if it were 
certain he had made it. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 
THE QUEEN'S FLIGHT 

She sees what seed long sown, ripened of late, 
Bears this sad crop ; and she discerns her fate. 

—Michael Field. 

MEANTIME, poor Mary reaped the full 
consequences of Bothwell's guilt, and 
of her own infatuated attachment to 
him. She was imprisoned in a rude and incon- 
venient tower, on a small islet, where there was 
scarce room to walk fifty yards ; and not even 
the intercession of Queen Elizabeth, who seems 
for the time to have been alarmed at the suc- 
cessful insurrection of subjects against their sov- 
ereign, could procure any mitigation of her cap- 
tivity. There was a proposal to proceed against 
the Queen as an accomplice in Darnley's murder, 
and to take her life under that pretence. But 
the Lords of the Secret Council resolved to adopt 
somewhat of a gentler course, by compelling 
Mary to surrender her crown to her son, then an 
infant, and to make the Earl of Murray regent 
during the child's minority. Deeds to this pur- 
283 



284 Stories From Scottish History- 
pose were drawn up, and sent to the castle of 
Lochleven, to be signed by the Queen. Lord 
Lindsay, the rudest, most bigoted, and fiercest of] 
the confederated Lords, was deputed to enforce 
Mary's compliance with the commands of the 
Council. He behaved with such peremptory 
brutality as had perhaps been expected, and was 
so unmanly as to pinch with his iron glove the; 
arm of the poor Queen, to compel her to sub- 
scribe the deeds. 

If Mary had any quarter to which, in her dis- 
astrous condition, she might look for love and 
favor, it was to her brother Murray. She may 
have been criminal — she had certainly been 
grossly infatuated — yet she deserved her brother's 
kindness and compassion. She had loaded him 
with favors, and pardoned him considerable 
offences. Unquestionably she expected more 
favor from him than she met with. But Murray 
was ambitious ; and ambition breaks through the 
ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of grat- 
itude. He visited his imprisoned sister and 
benefactress in Lochleven Castle, but it was not 
to bring her comfort ; on the contrary, he pressed 
all her errors on her with such hard-hearted 
severity, that she burst into floods of tears, and 
abandoned herself to despair. 



The Queen's Flight 285 

Murray accepted the regency, and in doing 
so broke all remaining ties of tenderness between 
himself and his sister. He was now at the head 
of the ruling faction, consisting of what were 
called the King's Lords; while such of the nobility 
as desired that Mary, being now freed from the 
society of Bothwell, should be placed at liberty, 
and restored to the administration of the kingdom, 
were termed the Queen's Party. The strict and 
sagacious government of Murray imposed silence 
and submission for a time upon this last-named 
faction ; but a singular incident changed the face 
of things for a moment, and gave a gleam of 
hope to the unfortunate captive. 

Sir William Douglas, the Laird of Lochleven, 
owner of the castle where Mary was imprisoned, 
was a half-brother by the mother's side of the 
Regent Murray. This baron discharged with 
severe fidelity the task of Mary's jailer ; but his 
youngest brother, George Douglas, became more 
sensible to the Queen's distress, and perhaps to 
her beauty, than to the interests of the Regent, or 
of his own family. A plot laid by him for the 
Queen's deliverance was discovered, and he was 
expelled from the island in consequence. But he 
kept up a correspondence with a kinsman of his 
own, called Little Douglas, a boy of fifteen or 



286 Stories From Scottish History 

sixteen, who had remained in the castle. On 
Sunday, the 2d May, 1568, this little William 
Douglas, contrived to steal the keys of the castle 
while the family were at supper. He let Mary 
and her attendant out of the tower when all had 
gone to rest — locked the gates of the castle to 
prevent pursuit — placed the Queen and her 
waiting-woman in a little skiff, and rowed them 
to the shore, throwing the keys of the castle into 
the lake in the course of their passage. Just 
when they were about to set out on this adven- 
turous voyage, the youthful pilot had made a 
signal, by a light in a particular window visible 
at the upper end of the lake, to intimate that all 
was safe. Lord Seaton and a party of the 
Hamiltons were waiting at the landing-place. 
The Queen instantly mounted, and hurried off 
to Niddry Castle, in West Lothian ; she pro- 
ceeded next day to Hamilton. The news flew like 
lightning throughout the country, and spread 
enthusiasm everywhere. The people remem- 
bered Mary's gentleness, grace, and beauty — they 
remembered her misfortunes also — and if they 
reflected on her errors, they thought they had 
been punished with sufficient severity. On Sun- 
day, Mary was a sad and helpless captive in a 
lonely tower. On the Saturday following, she 



The Queen's Flight 287 

was at the head of a powerful confederacy, by 
which nine earls, nine bishops, eighteen lords, 
and many gentlemen of high rank, engaged to 
defend her person and restore her power. But 
this gleam of success was only temporary. 

It was the Queen's purpose to place her person 
in security in the castle of Dunbarton and her 
army, under the Earl of Argyle, proposed to 
carry her thither in a species of triumph. The 
Regent was lying at Glasgow with much inferior 
forces ; but, with just confidence in his own 
military skill, as well as the talents of Morton, 
and the valor of Kirkaldy, and other experienced 
soldiers, he determined to meet the Queen's 
Lords in their proposed march, and to give them 
battle. 

On 1 3th May, 1 568, Murray occupied the village 
of Langside, which lay full in the march of the 
Queen's army. The Hamiltons, and other gentle- 
men of Mary's troop, rushed forth with ill- 
considered valor to dispute the pass. They 
fought, however, with obstinacy, after the Scot- 
tish manner; that is, they pressed on each other 
front to front, each fixing his spear in his op- 
ponent's target, and then endeavoring to bear 
him down, as two bulls do when they encounter 
each other. Morton decided the battle, by attack- 



288 Stories From Scottish History 

ing the flank of the Hamiltons, while their column 
was closely engaged in the front. The measure 
was decisive, and the Queen's army was com- 
pletely routed. 

Queen Mary beheld this final and fatal defeat 
from a castle called Crookstane, about four miles 
from Paisley, where she and Darnley had spent 
some happy days after their marriage, and which, 
therefore, must have been the scene of bitter 
recollections. It was soon evident that there 
was no resource but in flight, and, escorted by 
Lord Herries and a few faithful- followers, she 
rode sixty miles before she stopped at the Abbey 
of Dundrennan, in Galloway. From this place 
she had the means of retreating either to France 
or England, as she should ultimately determine. 
In France she was sure to have been well re- 
ceived ; but England afforded a nearer, and, as 
she thought, an equally safe place of refuge. 

Forgetting, therefore, the various causes of 
emulation which existed between Elizabeth and 
herself, and remembering only the smooth and 
flattering words which she had received from 
her sister sovereign, it did not occur to the 
Scottish Queen that she should incur any risk 
by throwing herself upon the hospitality of Eng- 
land. It may also be supposed, that poor Mary, 



The Queen's Flight 289 

among whose faults want of generosity could not 
be reckoned, judged of Elizabeth according to 
the manner in which she would herself have 
treated the Queen of England in the same situa- 
tion. She therefore resolved to take refuge in 
Elizabeth's kingdom, in spite of the opposition 
of her wiser attendants. They kneeled and en- 
treated in vain. She entered the fatal boat, 
crossed the Solway, and delivered herself up to 
a gentleman named Lowther, the English deputy- 
warden. Much surprised, doubtless, at the inci- 
dent, he sent express to inform Queen Elizabeth ; 
and receiving' the Scottish Queen with as much 
respect as he had the means of showing, lodged 
her in Carlisle Castle. 



CHAPTER XXXV 
TROUBLOUS TIMES 

War, war is still the cry, — " war even to the knife ! " 

— Byron. 
The death shot parts ! the charger springs, 

Wild rises tumult's startling roar, 
And Murray's plumy helmet rings, — 
Rings on the ground, to rise no more. 

. —Scott. 

AFTER the battle of Langside, six of the 
Hamiltons, who had been most active 
on that occasion, were sentenced to die, 
as being guilty of treason against James VI, in 
having espoused his mother's cause. In this 
doom there was little justice, considering how 
the country was divided between the claims of 
the mother and the son. But the decree was not 
acted upon, and the persons condemned received 
their pardon through the mediation of John 
Knox with the Regent. 

One of the individuals thus pardoned was 
Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, a man of fierce 
and vindictive character. Like others in his con- 
290 



Troublous Times 291 

dition, he was punished by the forfeiture of his 
property, although his life was spared. His wife 
had brought him, as her portion, the lands of 
Woodhouselee, near Roslin, and these were be- 
stowed by Murray upon one of his favorites. 
This person exercised the right so rudely, as to 
turn Hamilton's wife out of her own house un- 
dressed, and unprotected from the fury of the 
weather. In consequence of this brutal treat- 
ment, she became insane, and died. Her husband 
vowed revenge, not on the actual author of his 
misfortune, but upon the Regent Murray, whom 
he considered as the original cause of it, and 
whom his family prejudices induced him to re- 
gard as the usurper of the sovereign power, and 
the oppressor of the name and house of Hamil- 
ton. There is little doubt that the Archbishop ' 
of St. Andrews, and some others of his name, 
encouraged Bothwellhaugh in this desperate reso- 
lution. 

The assassin took his measures with every 
mark of deliberation. Having learned that the 
Regent was to pass through Linlithgow on a 
certain day, he secretly introduced himself into 
an empty house belonging to the Archbishop of 
St. Andrews, which had in front a wooden bal- 
cony looking upon the street. Bothwellhaugh 



292 Stories From Scottish History 

hung a black cloth on the wall of the apartment 
where he lay that his shadow might not be seen 
from without, and spread a mattress on the floor, 
that the sound of his feet might not be heard 
from beneath. To secure his escape he fastened 
a fleet horse in the garden behind the house, and 
pulled down the lintel stones from the posts of 
the garden door, so that he might be able to 
pass through it on horseback. He also strongly 
barricaded the front door of the house, which 
opened to the street of the town. Having thus 
prepared all for concealment until the deed was 
done, and for escape afterward, he armed him- 
self with a loaded carabine, shut himself up in 
the lonely chamber, and waited the arrival of his 
victim. 

Some friend of Murray transmitted to him a 
hint of the danger which he might incur, in 
passing through the street of a place in which he 
was known to have enemies, and advised that he 
should avoid it by going round on the outside of 
the town ; or, at least, by riding hastily past the 
lodging which was more particularly suspected, 
as belonging to the Hamiltons. But the Regent, 
thinking that the step recommended would have 
an appearance of timidity, held on his way 
through the crowded street. As he came oppo- 



Troublous Times 293 

site the fatal balcony, his horse being somewhat 
retarded by the number of spectators, Bothwell- 
haugh had time to take a deliberate aim. He 
fired the carabine, and the Regent fell, mortally 
wounded. The ball, after passing through his 
body, killed the horse of a gentleman who rode 
on his right hand. His attendants rushed furi- 
ously at the door of the house from which the 
shot had issued ; but Bothwellhaugh's precau- 
tions had been so securely taken that they were 
unable to force their entrance till he had mounted 
his good horse, and escaped through the garden 
gate. He was notwithstanding pursued so closely, 
that he had very nearly been taken ; but after 
spur and whip had both failed, he pricked his 
horse with his dagger, compelled him to take a 
desperate leap over a ditch, which his pursuers 
were unable to cross, and thus made his escape. 

The Regent died in the course of the night, 
leaving a character, which has been, perhaps, too 
highly extolled by one class of authors, and too 
much depreciated by another, according as his 
conduct to his sister was approved or condemned. 

Upon the death of Murray, Lennox was chosen 
Regent. He was the father of the murdered 
Darnley, yet showed no excessive thirst for venge- 
ance. He endeavored to procure a union of 



294 Stories From Scottish History 

parties, for the purpose of domestic peace. But 
men's minds on both sides had become too much 
exasperated against each other. The Queen's 
party was strengthened by Maitland of Lething- 
ton and Kirkaldy of Grange joining that faction, 
after having been long the boast of that of the 
King. Lethington was one of the ablest men in 
Scotland, and Kirkaldy was certainly one of the 
bravest. He was, besides, Governor of Edinburgh 
Castle, and his declaring that he held that impor- 
tant place for the Queen gave great spirit to 
Mary's adherents. At the same time, they were 
deprived of a stronghold of scarcely inferior con- 
sequence, by the loss of Dunbarton Castle in the 
following extraordinary manner. 

This fortress is one of the strongest places in 
the world. It is situated on a rock, which rises 
almost perpendicularly from a level plain to the 
height of several hundred feet. On the summit 
of this rock the buildings are situated, and as 
there is only one access from below, which rises 
by steps, and is strongly guarded and fortified, 
the fort might be almost held to be impregnable, 
that is, impossible to be taken. One Captain 
Crawford of Jordan-hill, a distinguished adherent 
of the King's party, resolved nevertheless, to make 
an attempt on this formidable castle. 



Troublous Times 295 

He took advantage of a misty and moonless 
night to bring to the foot of the castle-rock the 
scaling-ladders which he had provided, choosing 
for his terrible experiment the place where the 
rock was highest, and where less pains were 
taken to keep a regular guard. This choice 
was fortunate ; for the first ladder broke with the 
weight of the men who attempted to mount, and 
the noise of the fall must have betrayed them, had 
there been any sentinel within hearing. Craw- 
ford, assisted by a soldier who had deserted from 
the castle, and was acting as his guide, renewed 
the attempt in person, and having scrambled up 
to a projecting ledge of rock where there was 
some footing, contrived to make fast the ladder, 
by tying it to the roots of a tree, which grew 
about midway up the rock. Here they found a 
small flat surface, sufficient, however, to afford 
footing to the whole party, which was, of course, 
very few in number. In scaling the second 
precipice, another accident took place : — One of 
the party, subject to epileptic fits, was seized by 
one of these attacks, brought on perhaps by 
terror, while he was in the act of climbing up the 
ladder. His illness made it impossible for him 
either to ascend or descend. To have slain the 
man would have been a cruel expedient, besides 



296 Stories From Scottish History 

that the fall of his body might have alarmed the 
garrison. Crawford caused him, therefore, to be 
tied to the ladder, which they turned, and thus 
mounted with ease. When the party gained the 
summit, they slew the sentinel ere he had time to 
give the alarm, and easily surprised the slumber- 
ing garrison, who had trusted too much to the 
security of their castle to keep good watch. 

The regency of Scotland being vacant in 1572, 
the Earl of Morton was appointed to the post. 
During the greater part of his tenure of office 
Scotland enjoyed the blessings of peace and tran- 
quillity. 

But the advantages which the kingdom derived 
from peace, were in some measure destroyed by 
the corrupt and oppressive government of the 
Regent, who turned his thoughts almost entirely 
to amassing treasure, by every means in his 
power. The extensive property, which formerly 
belonged to the Roman Catholic Church was a 
mine out of which Morton and the other great 
nobles contrived to work for themselves a great 
deal of wealth. This they did chiefly by dealing 
with those who were placed in the room of the 
abbots and priors as commendators, by which 
word the Scots distinguished a layman who ob- 
tained possession of an ecclesiastical benefice. To 



Troublous Times 297 

these commendators the nobles applied, and, by- 
fair means or force, compelled them to make over 
and transfer to them the property of the abbacies, 
or at least to grant it to them in long leases for a 
trifling rent. That you may understand how this 
sort of business was managed I will give you a 
curious instance of it : — 

In August, 1570, Allan Stewart, commenda- 
tor of the abbacy of Crossraguel, in Ayrshire, 
was prevailed on to visit the Earl of Cassilis, 
who conveyed him, partly against his will, to a 
lonely tower, which overhangs the sea, called the 
Black Vault of Denure, the ruins of which are 
yet visible. He was treated for some time kindly ; 
but as his arms and servants were removed from 
him, he soon saw reason to consider himself less 
as a friendly guest than as a prisoner, to whom 
some foul play was intended. At length, the 
Earl conveyed his guest into a private chamber, 
in which there was no furniture of any kind ex- 
cepting a huge clumsy iron grate or gridiron, be- 
neath which was a fire of charcoal. " And now, 
my lord abbott," said the Earl of Cassilis, " will 
you be pleased to sign these deeds ? " And so 
saying, he laid before him leases and other papers, 
transferring the whole lands of the abbacy of 
Crossraguel to the Earl himself. The com- 



298 Stories From Scottish History 

mendator refused to yield up the property or to 
subscribe the deeds. A party of ruffians then 
entered, and seizing the unhappy man, stripped 
him of his clothes, and forcibly stretched him on 
the iron bars, where he lay, scorched by the fire 
beneath, while they basted him with oil, as a 
cook bastes the joint of meat which she roasts 
upon a spit. The agony of such torture was not 
to be endured. The poor man cried pitifully, 
begging they would put him to instant death, 
rather than subject him to this lingering misery, 
and offered his purse, with the money it con- 
tained, to any who would in mercy shoot him 
through the head. At length he was obliged to 
promise to subscribe whatever the Earl wished, 
rather than endure the excessive torture any 
longer. The letters and leases being then pre- 
sented to him, he signed them with his half- 
roasted hand, while the Earl all the while ex- 
claimed, with the most impudent hypocrisy, 
" Benedicite ! you are the most obstinate man I 
ever saw, to oblige me to use you thus : I never 
thought to have treated any one as your stub- 
bornness has made me treat you." The com- 
mendator was afterward delivered by a party 
commanded by Hamilton of Bargany, who at- 
tacked the Black Vault of Denure for the pur- 



Troublous Times 299 

pose of his liberation. But the wild, savage, and 
ferocious conduct of the Earl shows in what 
manner the nobles obtained grants of the church 
lands from those who had possession of them for 
the time. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 
QUEEN MARY IN PRISON 

'Tis a weary life this — 
Vaults overhead, and grates and bars around me, 
And my sad hours spent with as sad companions. 

ELIZABETH, great as she was upon other 
occasions of her reign, acted on the pres- 
ent from mean and envious motives. 
She saw in the fugitive who implored her pro- 
tection, a princess who possessed a right of suc- 
cession to the crown of England, which, by the 
Catholic part of her subjects at least, was held 
superior to her own. She remembered that 
Mary had been led to assume the arms and titles 
of the English monarchy, or rather, that the 
French had assumed them in her name, when 
she was in childhood. She recollected, that 
Mary had been her rival in accomplishments ; 
and certainly she did not forget that she was her 
superior in youth and beauty ; and had the ad- 
vantage, as she had expressed it herself, to be the 
mother of a fair son, while she remained a bar- 
ren stock Elizabeth, therefore, considered the 
300 



Queen Mary in Prison 301 

Scottish Queen not as a sister and friend in dis- 
tress, but as an enemy, over whom circumstances 
had given her power, and determined upon re- 
ducing her to the condition of a captive. 

In pursuance of the line of conduct to which 
this mean train of reasoning led, the unfortunate 
Mary was surrounded by English guards and re- 
moved to Bolton Castle, in Yorkshire. 

Always demanding her liberty, and always 
having her demand evaded or refused, Mary was 
transported from castle to castle, and placed under 
the charge of various keepers, who incurred 
Elizabeth's most severe resentment, when they 
manifested any of that attention to soften the 
rigors of the poor Queen's captivity, which mere 
courtesy and compassion for fallen greatness, 
sometimes prompted. The very furniture and 
accommodations of her apartments were miser- 
ably neglected, and when she was permitted to 
take exercise, she was always strongly guarded, 
as if she had been a criminal. 

During this severe captivity on the one part, 
and the greatest anxiety, doubt, and jealousy, on 
the other, the two Queens still kept up a sort of 
correspondence. In the commencement of this 
intercourse, Mary endeavored, by the force of ar- 
gument, by the seductions of flattery, and by 



302 Stories From Scottish History 

appeals to the feelings of humanity, to soften 
toward her the heart of Elizabeth. 

Despairing at length of making any favorable 
impression upon Elizabeth, Mary, with more wit 
than prudence, used her means of communicat- 
ing with the Queen of England, to irritate and 
provoke her. 

Being for a long time under the charge of the 
Earl of Shrewsbury, whose lady was a woman of 
a shrewish disposition, Mary used to report to 
Elizabeth, that the countess had called her old 
and ugly ; had said she was grown as crooked in 
her temper as in her body, with many other 
scandalous and abusive expressions, which must 
have given exquisite pain to any woman, and 
more especially to a Queen so proud as Elizabeth, 
and desirous, even in old age, of being still es- 
teemed beautiful. 

But, besides these female reasons for detesting 
her prisoner, Elizabeth had cause to regard the 
Queen of Scots with fear as well as envy and 
hatred. The Catholic party in England were 
still very strong, and they considered the claim 
of Mary to the throne of England as descended 
from the Princess Margaret, daughter of Henry 
VII, to be preferable to that of the existing 
Queen, who was, in their judgment, illegitimate, 






Queen Mary in Prison 303 

as being the heir of an illegal marriage between 
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Various plots 
were entered into among the Papists for de- 
throning Elizabeth, and transferring the kingdom 
of England to Mary, a sovereign of their own re- 
ligion, and in their eyes the lawful successor to 
the crown. 

As fast as one of these conspiracies was dis- 
covered, another seemed to form itself; and as 
the Catholics were promised powerful assistance 
from the King of Spain, and were urged forward 
by the impulse of enthusiasm, the danger ap- 
peared every day more and more imminent. It 
cannot be doubted that several of these plots 
were communicated to Mary in her imprison- 
ment ; and, considering what grounds she had to 
complain of Elizabeth, it would have been won- 
derful if she had betrayed to her jailer the schemes 
which were formed to set her at liberty. 

In 1586, Anthony Babington, a young gentle- 
man of fortune and of talents, a zealous Catholic, 
and a fanatical enthusiast for the cause of the 
Scottish Queen, had associated with himself five 
resolute friends and adherents, all men of condi- 
tion, in the desperate enterprise of assassinating 
Queen Elizabeth, and setting Mary at liberty. 
But their schemes were secretly betrayed to 



304 Stories From Scottish History 

Walsingham, the celebrated minister of the Queen 
of England. They were suffered to proceed as 
far as was thought safe, then seized, tried, and 
executed. 

It was next resolved upon, that Mary should 
be brought to trial for her life, under pretence of 
her having encouraged Babington and his com- 
panions in their desperate purpose. She was re- 
moved to the castle of Fotheringay, and placed 
under two keepers, Sir Amias Paulet and Sir 
Drew Drury, whose well-known hatred of the 
Catholic religion was supposed to render them 
inclined to treat their unfortunate captive with 
the utmost rigor. Her private cabinet was 
broken open and stripped of its contents, her 
principal domestics were removed from her per- 
son, her money and her jewels were taken from 
her. Queen Elizabeth then proceeded to name 
Commissioners. They were forty in number, of 
the most distinguished of her statesmen and no- 
bility, and were directed to proceed to the trial 
of Mary for her alleged accession to Babington's 
conspiracy. 

On the 14th October, 1586, these Commission- 
ers held their court in the great hall of Fother- 
ingay Castle. Mary, left to herself, and having 
counsel of no friend, advocate, or lawyer, made, 



Queen Mary in Prison 305 

nevertheless, a defence becoming her high birth 
and distinguished talents. She refused to plead 
before a court composed of persons who were of 
a degree inferior to her own ; and when at length 
she agreed to hear and answer the accusation 
brought against her, she made her protest that 
she did so, not as owning the authority of the 
court, but purely in vindication of her own char- 
acter. 

The attorney and solicitor for Queen Elizabeth 
stated the conspiracy of Babington, as it unques- 
tionably existed, and produced copies of letters 
which Mary was alleged to have written, approv- 
ing the insurrection, and even the assassination 
of Elizabeth. The declarations of Naue and 
Curie, two of Mary's secretaries, went to confirm 
the fact of her having had correspondence with 
Babington, by intervention of a priest called Bal- 
lard. The confessions of Babington and his as- 
sociates were then read, avowing Mary's share in 
their criminal undertaking. 

To these charges Mary answered, by denying 
that she ever had any correspondence with Bal- 
lard, or that she had even written such letters as 
those produced against her. She insisted that 
she could only be affected by such writings as 
bore her own hand and seal, and not by copies. 



306 Stories From Scottish History 

Mary admitted that, having for many years de- 
spaired of relief or favor from Queen Elizabeth, 
she had, in her distress, applied to other sover- 
eigns, and that she had also endeavored to pro- 
cure some favor for the persecuted Catholics of 
England ; but she denied that she had endeav- 
ored to purchase liberty for herself, or advantage 
for the Catholics, at the expense of shedding the 
blood of any one ; and declared, that if she had 
given consent in word, or even in thought, to the 
murder of Elizabeth, she was willing, not only to 
submit to the doom of men, but even to renounce 
the mercy of God. 

The evidence which was brought to convict 
the Queen of Scotland was such as would not now 
affect the life of the meanest criminal ; yet the 
Commission had the cruelty and meanness to de- 
clare Mary guilty of having been accessory to 
Babington's conspiracy, and of having contrived 
and endeavored the death of Queen Elizabeth, 
contrary to the statute made for security of the 
Queen's life. And the Parliament of England ap- 
proved of and ratified this iniquitous sentence. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

FOTHERINGAY CASTLE 

Alas the change ! she placed her foot upon a triple throne, 
And on the scaffold now she stands, beside the block, alone ! 

—GlasfordBell. 

IT was not perhaps to be expected that James 
VI should have had much natural affection 
for his mother, whom he had never seen since 
his infancy. He had, therefore, seen Mary's cap- 
tivity with little of the sympathy which a child 
ought to feel for a parent. But, upon learning 
these proceedings against her life, he sent ambas- 
sadors, first, Sir William Keith, and after him the 
Master of Gray, to intercede with Queen Eliza- 
beth, and to use both persuasion and threats to 
preserve the life of his mother. The friendship 
of Scotland was at this moment of much greater 
importance to England than at any previous 
period of her history. 

It therefore seems probable, that had James 

himself been very serious in his interposition, or 

had his ambassador been disposed to urge the 

interference committed to his charge with due 

3°7 



308 Stories From Scottish History 

firmness and vigor, it could scarce have failed in 
being successful, at least for a time. But the 
Master of Gray, as is now admitted, privately en- 
couraged Elizabeth and her ministers to proceed 
in the cruel path they had chosen, and treach- 
erously gave them reason to believe, that though, 
for the sake of decency, James found it necessary 
to interfere in his mother's behalf, yet, in his 
secret mind, he would not be very sorry that 
Mary, who, in the eyes of a part of his subjects, 
was still regarded as sovereign of Scotland, should 
be quietly removed out of the way. 

Yet Elizabeth would fain have had Mary's 
death take place in such a way as that she her- 
self should not appear to have any hand in it. 
Her ministers were employed to write letters to 
Mary's keepers, insinuating what a good service 
they would do to Elizabeth and the Protestant 
religion, if Mary could be privately assassinated. 
But these stern guardians, though strict and 
severe in their conduct toward the Queen, would 
not listen to such persuasions. 

As it was necessary from the scruples of Paulet 
and Drury, to proceed in all form, Elizabeth 
signed a warrant for the execution of the sen- 
tence pronounced on Queen Mary, and gave it 
to Davison, her secretary of state, commanding 



Fotheringay Castle 309 

that it should be sealed with the great seal of 
England. Davison laid the warrant, signed by 
Elizabeth, before the Privy Council, and next 
day the great seal was placed upon it. Eliza- 
beth, upon hearing this, affected some displeasure 
that the warrant had been so speedily prepared, 
and told the secretary that it was the opinion of 
wise men that some other cause might be taken 
with Queen Mary. Davison, in this pretended 
change of mind, saw some danger that his mis- 
tress might throw the fault of the execution upon 
him after it had taken place. He therefore in- 
formed the Keeper of the Seals what the Queen 
had said, protesting he would not venture farther 
in the matter. The Privy Council, having met 
together, and conceiving themselves certain what 
were the Queen's real wishes, sent off the war- 
rant for execution with their clerk Beale. The 
Earls of Kent and Shrewsbury, with the High 
Sheriff of the county, were empowered and com- 
manded to see the fatal mandate carried into 
effect without delay. 

Mary received the melancholy intelligence with 
the utmost firmness. " The soul," she said, " was 
undeserving of the joys of Heaven, which would 
shrink from the blow of an executioner. She 
had not," she added, " expected that her kins- 



310 Stories From Scottish History 

woman would have consented to her death, but 
submitted not the less willingly to her fate." 
She earnestly requested the assistance of a priest ; 
but this favor, which is granted to the worst 
criminals, and upon which Catholics lay particular 
weight, was cruelly refused. The Queen then 
wrote her last will, and short and affectionate 
letters of farewell to her relations in France. 
She distributed among her attendants such valu- 
ables as had been left her, and desired them to 
keep them for her sake. This occupied the 
evening before the day appointed for the fatal 
execution. 

On the 8th February, 1587, the Queen, still 
maintaining the same calm and undisturbed ap- 
pearance which she had displayed at her pre- 
tended trial, was brought down to the great hall 
of the castle, where a scaffold was erected, on 
which were placed a block and a chair, the whole 
being covered with black cloth. The Master of 
her Household, Sir Andrew Melville, was per- 
mitted to take a last leave of the mistress whom 
he had served long and faithfully. He burst into 
loud lamentations, bewailing her fate, and de- 
ploring his own in being destined to carry such 
news to Scotland. " Weep not, my good Mel- 
ville," said the Queen, " but rather rejoice ; for 



Fotheringay Castle 311 

thou shalt this day see Mary Stewart relieved 
from all her sorrows." She obtained permission, 
with some difficulty, that her maids should be 
allowed to attend her on the scaffold. It was 
objected to, that the extravagance of their grief 
might disturb the proceedings ; she engaged for 
them that they would be silent. 

When the Queen was seated in the fatal chair, 
she heard the death warrant read by Beale, the 
Clerk to the Privy Council, with an appearance 
of indifference ; nor did she seem more attentive 
to the devotional exercises of the Dean of Peter- 
borough, in which, as a Catholic, she could not 
conscientiously join. She implored the mercy 
of Heaven, after the form prescribed by her own 
church. She then prepared herself for execu- 
tion, taking off such parts of her dress as might 
interfere with the deadly blow. The execu- 
tioners offered their assistance, but she modestly 
refused it, saying, she had neither been accus- 
tomed to undress before so many spectators, nor 
to be served by such grooms of the chamber. 
She quietly chid her maids, who were unable to 
withhold their cries of lamentation, and reminded 
them that she had engaged for their silence. 
Last of all Mary laid her head on the block, 
which the executioner severed from her body 



312 Stories From Scottish History 

with two strokes of his axe. The headsman 
held it up in his hand, and the Dean of Peter- 
borough cried out, " So perish all Queen Eliza- 
beth's enemies ! " No voice, save that of the 
Earl of Kent, could answer Amen, the rest were 
choked with sobs and tears. 

Thus died Queen Mary, aged a little above 
forty-four years. She was eminent for beauty, 
for talents, and accomplishments, nor is there 
reason to doubt her natural goodness of heart, 
and courageous manliness of disposition. Yet 
she was, in every sense, one of the most unhappy 
Princesses that ever lived, from the moment when 
she came into the world, in an hour of defeat and 
danger, to that in which a bloody and violent 
death closed a weary captivity of eighteen years. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 
JAMES VI AND KINMONT WILLIE 

Why prate of peace ? when, warriors all, 
We clank in harness into hall, 
And ever bare upon the board 
Lies the necessary sword. 

— R. L. Stevenson. 

JAMES'S reign in Scotland was marked with 
so many circumstances of difficulty, and 
even of danger, that he was placed upon 
his guard, and compelled to conduct himself 
with the strictest attention to the rules of pru- 
dence ; for he had little chance of overawing his 
turbulent nobility, but by maintaining the dig- 
nity of the royal character. If the King had 
possessed the ability of distributing largesses 
among his powerful subjects, his influence would 
have been greater ; but this was so far from being 
the case, that his means of supporting his royal 
state, excepting an annuity allowed to him by 
Elizabeth of five thousand pounds yearly, were 
in the last degree precarious. This was owing 
in a great measure to the plundering of the 
3*3 



314 Stories From Scottish History 

revenue of the crown during the civil wars of his 
minority, and the Regency of the Earl of Morton. 
The King was so dependent, that he could not 
even give an entertainment without begging 
poultry and venison from some of his more 
wealthy subjects ; and his wardrobe was so ill 
furnished, that he was obliged to request the 
loan of a pair of silk hose from the Earl of Mar, 
that he might be suitably appareled to receive 
the Spanish ambassador. 

In those wild days the very children had their 
deadly feuds, carried weapons, and followed the 
bloody example of their fathers. The following 
instance occurred in September, 1595. The 
scholars of the High School of Edinburgh, hav- 
ing a dispute with their masters about the length 
of their holidays, resolved to stand out for a 
longer vacation. Accordingly, they took posses- 
sion of the school and resisted the admission of 
the masters. Such foolish things have often 
occurred in public schools elsewhere ; but what 
was peculiar to the High School boys of Edin- 
burgh was, that they defended the school with 
sword and pistol, and when Bailie MacMorran, 
one of the magistrates, gave directions to force 
the entrance, three of the boys fired, and killed 
him on the spot. There were none of them 



James VI and^Kinmont Willie 315 

punished, because it was alleged that it could not 
be known which of them did the deed ; but rather 
because two of them were gentleman's sons. So 
you see the bloodthirsty spirit of the times de- 
scended even to children. 

I must tell you of another exploit on the 
Borders, the last that was performed there, but 
certainly not the least remarkable for valor and 
conduct. 

The English and Scottish Wardens, or their 
deputies, had held a day of truce for settling 
Border disputes, and, having parted friends, both, 
with their followers, were returning home. At 
every such meeting it was the general rule on the 
Borders that there should be an absolute truce 
for twenty- four hours, and that all men who 
attended the Warden on either side to the field 
should have permission to ride home again un- 
disturbed. 

Now, there had come to the meeting, with 
other Border men, a notorious depredator, called 
William Armstrong, but more commonly known 
by the name of Kinmont Willie. This man was 
riding home on the north or Scottish side of the 
Liddell, where that stream divides England and 
Scotland, when some of the English who had 
enmity against him, or had suffered by his in- 



316 Stories From Scottish History 

cursions, were unable to resist the temptation to 
attack him. They accordingly dashed across the 
river, pursued Kinmont Willie more than a mile 
within Scotland, made him prisoner, and brought 
him to Carlisle Castle. 

As the man talked boldly and resolutely about 
the breach of truce in his person, and demanded 
peremptorily to be set at liberty, Lord Scrope 
told him scoffingly, that before he left the castle 
he should bid him " farewell," meaning, that he 
should not go without his leave. The prisoner 
boldly answered, " that he would not go without 
bidding him good-night." 

The Lord of Buccleuch, who was Warden, or 
Keeper, of Liddesdale, demanded the restoration 
of Kinmont Willie to liberty, and complained of 
his being taken, and imprisoned as a breach of 
the Border-laws, and an insult done to himself. 
Lord Scrope refused, or at least evaded, giving 
up his prisoner. Buccleuch then sent him a 
challenge, which Lord Scrope declined to accept, 
on the ground of his employment in the public 
service. The Scottish chief, therefore, resolved 
to redress by force the insult which his country 
as well as himself, had sustained on the occasion. 
He collected about three hundred of his best 
men, and made a night march to Carlisle Castle. 



James VI and Kinmont Willie 317 

A small party of chosen men dismounted, while 
the rest remained on horseback, to repel any 
attack from the town. The night being misty 
and rainy, the party to whom that duty was 
committed approached the foot of the walls, and 
tried to scale them by means of ladders which 
they had brought with them for the purpose. 
But the ladders were found too short. They 
then, with mining instruments which they had 
provided, burst open a postern or wicket-door, 
and entered the castle. Their chief had given 
them strict orders to do no harm save to those 
who opposed them, so that the few guards, whom 
the alarm brought together, were driven back 
without much injury. Being masters of the 
castle, the trumpets of the Scottish Warden were 
then blown, to the no small terror of the in- 
habitants of Carlisle, surprised out of their quiet 
sleep by the sounds of invasion at so early an 
hour. The bells of the castle rang out ; those of 
the Cathedral and Moot-hall answered ; drums 
beat to arms ; and beacons were lighted, to alarm 
the warlike country around. 

In the meanwhile, the Scottish party had freed 
Kinmont Willie from his dungeon. The first 
thing Armstrong did was to shout a good-night 
to Lord Scrope, asking him, at the same time, if 



318 Stories From Scottish History- 
he had any news for Scotland. The Borderers 
strictly obeyed the commands of their chief, in 
forbearing to take any booty. They returned 
from the castle, bringing with them their rescued 
countryman, and a gentleman named Spenser, an 
attendant on the constable of the castle. Buccleuch 
dismissed him, with his commendations to Salkeld 
the constable, whom he esteemed, he said, abetter 
gentleman than Lord Scrope, bidding him say it 
was the Warden of Liddesdale who had done the 
exploit, and praying the constable, if he desired 
the name of a man of honor, to issue forth and 
seek a revenge. Buccleuch then ordered the 
retreat, which he performed with great leisure, 
and reentered Scotland at sunrise in honor and 
safety. " There had never been a more gallant 
deed of vassalage done in Scotland," says an old 
historian, " no, not in Wallace's days." 



CHAPTER XXXIX 
THE GOWRIE-HOUSE MYSTERY 

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. 

— Shakespeare. 

THE strangest adventure of James's reign 
was the event called the Gowrie Con- 
spiracy, over which there hangs a sort 
of mystery, which time has not even yet com- 
pletely dispelled. There was an Earl of Gowrie 
condemned and executed, when James was but a 
boy. This nobleman left two sons, bearing the 
family name of Ruthven, who were well educated 
abroad, and accounted hopeful young men. The 
King restored to the eldest the title and estate 
of Gowrie, and favored them both very much. 

Now, it chanced in the month of August, 1600, 
that Alexander Ruthven, the younger of the two 
brothers, came early one morning to the King, 
who was then hunting in the Park of Falkland, 
and told him a story of his having seized a sus- 
picious-looking man, a Jesuit, as he supposed, 
with a large pot of gold under his cloak. This 
man Ruthven said he had detained prisoner at his 
3 J 9 



320 Stories From Scottish History 

brother's house, in Perth, till the King should 
examine him, and take possession of the treasure. 
With this story he decoyed James from the hunt- 
ing-field, and persuaded him to ride with him to 
Perth, without any other company than a few 
noblemen and attendants, who followed the King 
without orders. 

When they arrived at Perth, they entered 
Gowrie-house, the mansion of the Earl, a large 
massive building, having gardens which stretched 
down to the River Tay. The Earl of Gowrie was, 
or seemed surprised, to see the King arrive so 
unexpectedly, and caused some entertainment to 
be hastily prepared for his Majesty's refreshment. 
After the King had dined, Alexander Ruthven 
pressed him to come with him to see the prisoner 
in private ; and James, curious by nature, and 
sufficiently indigent to be inquisitive after money, 
followed him from one apartment to another, un- 
til Ruthven led him into a little turret, where there 
stood — not a prisoner with a pot of gold — but an 
armed man, prepared, as it seemed, for some 
violent enterprise. 

The King started back, but Ruthven snatched 
the dagger which the man wore, and pointing it 
to James's breast, reminded him of his father the 
Earl of Gowrie's death, and commanded him, upon 



The Gowrie-House Mystery 321 

pain of death, to submit to his pleasure. The 
King replied that he was but a boy when the 
Earl of Gowrie suffered, and upbraided Ruthven 
with ingratitude. The conspirator, moved by re- 
morse or some other reason, assured the King 
that his life should be safe, and left him in the 
turret with the armed man, who, not very well 
selected to aid in a purpose so desperate, stood 
shaking in his armor, without assisting either his 
master or the King. 

Let us now see what was passing below, during 
this strange scene between the King and Ruth- 
ven. The attendants of James had begun to 
wonder at his absence, when they were suddenly 
informed by a servant of the Earl of Gowrie, that 
the King had mounted his horse, and had set out 
on his return to Falkland. The noblemen and 
attendants rushed into the courtyard of the man- 
sion, and called for their horses, the Earl of Gow- 
rie at the same time hurrying them away. Here 
the porter interfered, and said the King could 
not have left the house, since he had not passed 
the gate, of which he had the keys. Gowrie, on 
the other hand, called the man a liar, and insisted 
that the King had departed. 

While the attendants of James knew not what 
to think, a half smothered, yet terrified voice, was 



322 Stories From Scottish History 

heard to scream from the window of a turret 
above their heads, — "Help! Treason! Help! my 
Lord of Mar ! " They looked upward, and be- 
held James's face in great agitation pushed 
through the window, while a hand was seen 
grasping his throat, as if some one behind endeav- 
ored by violence to draw him back. 

The explanation was as follows : The King, 
when left alone with the armed man, had, it 
seems, prevailed upon him to open the lattice 
window. This was just done when Alexander 
Ruthven again entered the turret, and, swearing 
that there was no remedy, but the King must 
needs die, he seized on him, and endeavored by 
main force to tie his hands with a gaiter. James 
resisted in the extremity of despair, and dragging 
Ruthven to the window, now open, called out to 
his attendants in the manner we have described. 
His retinue hastened to his assistance. The 
greater part ran to the principal staircase, of 
which they found the doors shut, and immediately 
endeavored to force them open. Meantime a 
page of the King's, called Sir John Ramsay, dis- 
covered a back stair which led him to the turret, 
where Ruthven and the King were still strug- 
gling. Ramsay stabbed Ruthven twice with his 
dagger, James calling to him to strike high, as he 



The Gowrie-House Mystery 323 

had a doublet of proof on him. Ramsay then 
thrust Ruthven, now mortally wounded, toward 
the private staircase, where he was met by Sir 
Thomas Erskine and Sir Hugh Herries, two 
of the royal attendants, who despatched him with 
their swords. His last words were, " Alas ! I am 
not to blame for this action." 

This danger was scarcely over, when the Earl 
of Gowrie entered the outer chamber, with a 
drawn sword in each hand, followed by seven at- 
tendants, demanding vengeance for the death of 
his brother. The King's followers, only four in 
number, thrust James, for the safety of his person, 
back into the turret-closet, and shut the door ; 
and then engaged in a conflict, which was the 
more desperate, that they fought four to eight, 
and Herries was a lame and disabled man. But 
Sir John Ramsay having run the Earl of Gowrie 
through the heart, he dropped dead without 
speaking a word, and his servants fled. The 
doors of the great staircase were now opened to 
the nobles, who were endeavoring to force their 
way to the King's assistance. 

In the meantime a new peril threatened the 
King and his few attendants. The slain Earl of 
Gowrie was provost of the town of Perth, and 
much beloved by the citizens. On hearing what 



324 Stories From Scottish History 

had happened, they ran to arms, and surrounded 
the mansion-house, where this tragedy had been 
acted, threatening, that if their provost were not 
delivered to them safe and sound, the King's 
green coat should pay for it. Their violence was 
at last quieted by the magistrates of the town, 
and the mob were prevailed on to disperse. 

The object of this strange conspiracy is one 
of the darkest in history, and what made it 
stranger, the armed man who was stationed in 
the turret could throw no light upon it. He 
proved to be one Henderson, steward to the Earl 
of Gowrie, who had been ordered to arm himself 
for the purpose of taking a Highland thief, and 
was posted in the turret by Alexander Ruthven, 
without any intimation what he was to do; so 
that the whole scene came upon him by sur- 
prise. The mystery seemed so impenetrable, 
and much of the narrative rested upon James's 
own testimony, that many persons of that period, 
and even some historians of our own day, have 
thought that it was not a conspiracy of the 
brothers against the King, but of the King against 
the brothers ; and that James, having taken a dis- 
like to them, had contrived the bloody scene, ancl 
then thrown the blame on the Ruthvens, who 
suffered in it. But, besides the placability and 






The Gowrie-House Mystery 325 

gentleness of James's disposition, and besides the 
consideration that no adequate motive can be as- 
signed, or even conjectured, for his perpetrating 
such an inhospitable murder, it ought to be re- 
membered that the King was naturally timorous, 
and could not even look at a drawn sword with- 
out shuddering ; so that it is contrary to all reason 
and probability to suppose that he could be the 
deviser of a scheme, in which his life was repeat- 
edly exposed to the most imminent danger. 
However, many of the clergy refused to obey 
James's order to keep a day of solemn thanks- 
giving for the King's deliverance, intimating, 
without hesitation, that they greatly doubted the 
truth of his story. One of them being pressed 
by the King very hard, said — " That doubtless he 
must believe it, since his majesty said he had seen 
it ; but that, had he seen it himself, he would not 
have believed his own eyes." James was much 
vexed with this incredulity, for it was hard not to 
obtain credit after having been in so much danger. 
Nine years after the affair, some light was 
thrown upon the transaction by one Sprot, a 
notary-public, who, out of mere curiosity, had 
possessed himself of certain letters, said to have 
been written to the Earl of Gowrie by Robert 
Logan of Restalng, a scheming, turbulent, and 



326 Stories From Scottish History 

profligate man. In these papers, allusion was 
repeatedly made to the death of Gowrie's father, 
to the revenge which was meditated, and to the 
execution of some great and perilous enterprise. 
Lastly, there was intimation that the Ruthvens 
were to bring a prisoner by sea to Logan's for- 
tress of Fastcastle, a very strong and inaccessible 
tower, overhanging the sea, on the coast of 
Berwickshire. This place he recommends as 
suitable for keeping some important prisoner in 
safety and concealment, and adds, he had kept 
Both well there in his utmost distresses, let the 
King and his council say what they would. 

All these expressions seem to point at a plot, 
not affecting the King's life, but his personal 
liberty, and make it probable, that when Alexander 
Ruthven had frightened the King into silence 
and compliance, the brothers intended to carry 
him through the gardens, and put him on board 
of a boat, and so conveying him down the Firth 
of Tay, and round the northeast coast of Fife, 
might, after making a private signal, which Logan 
alludes to, place their royal prisoner in security 
in Fastcastle. The seizing upon the person of 
the King was a common enterprise among the 
Scottish nobles, and the father of the Ruthvens 
had lost his life for such an attempt. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE UNION 

One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, 
One Nation ever more ! 

—O. W. Holmes. 

WE now approach the end of this col- 
lection of Tales. The English people 
began to turn their eyes toward 
James VI of Scotland as the nearest heir of 
King Henry VIII, and the rightful successor to 
the throne of England when Queen Elizabeth 
should fail. She was now old, her health broken, 
and her feelings painfully agitated by the death 
of Essex, her principal favorite. After his exe- 
cution, she could scarcely be said ever to enjoy 
either health or reason. She sat on a pile of 
cushions, with her finger in her mouth, attending, 
as it seemed, to nothing, saving to the prayers 
which were from time to time read in her chamber. 
While the Queen of England was thus strug- 
gling out the last moments of life, her subjects 
were making interest with her successor James, 
with whom even Cecil himself, the Prime Minister 
3 2 7 



328 Stories From Scottish History 

of England, had long kept up a secret cor- 
respondence. The breath had no sooner left 
Elizabeth's body, than the near relation and god- 
son of the late Queen, Sir Robert Carey, got on 
horseback, and, traveling with a rapidity, which 
almost equaled that of the modern mail-coach, 
carried to the Palace of Holyrood the news, that 
James was King of England, France, and Ireland, 
as well as of his native dominions of Scotland. 
James arrived in London on the 7th of May, 
1603, and took possession of his new realms 
without the slightest opposition ; and thus the 
island of Great Britain, so long divided into the 
separate kingdoms of England and Scotland, 
became subject to the same prince. Here, there- 
fore, must end the " Tales of a Grandfather," so 
far as they relate to the History of Scotland, 
considered as a distinct and separate Kingdom. 



THE END 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 

i. D. PAGE 

286 Death of Alexander III, and succession of his 

granddaughter Margaret, Maid of Norway 
290 Margaret dies at Orkney, on her way to Scotland; 
Robert Bruce the elder and John Baliol, among 
other competitors, claim the throne . 
[292 Edward I of England, as overlord, awards the 

crown to Baliol 

[296 Baliol, having withdrawn his allegiance to Eng- 
land, is deposed by Edward, and sent prisoner 
to London ....... 

[297 Rising of the Scots under William Wallace . . 4 
English defeated at Stirling Bridge ... 10 
Wallace appointed Guardian of Scotland . . 14 
[298 Wallace, defeated at Falkirk, resigns the Guard- 
ianship 18 

[305 Betrayal and execution of Wallace ... 20 
[306 Robert Bruce, grandson of John BalioPs rival, joins 

the Scottish cause ...... 26 

The Red Comyn slain by Bruce at Dumfries . 28 

Bruce crowned at Scone 29 

Defeated at Methven 30 

[307 Edward I died ; succeeded by his son, Edward II 60 
Lord James Douglas recovers his castle from the 

English 62 

[312 Edinburgh, Linlithgow, and Roxburgh castles 

taken from the English 68 

1314 Battle of Bannockburn 88 

3 2 9 



330 Chronological Table 

13 1 8 Scots defeated by the English in Ireland, and Ed- 
ward Bruce slain ..... 

1327 Randolph and Douglas raid Northumberland and 

Durham 

1328 Treaty of Northampton, recognizing the independ- 

ence of Scotland, signed .... 

1329 Bruce dies at Cardross ; succeeded by his son, 

David II 

Edward Baliol, supported by the English, defeats 
the Scots at Dupplin .... 

1333 English defeat the Scots at Halidon Hill 

1346 English defeat the Scots, and take prisoner King 
David, at Neville's Cross .... 

1357 David released on payment of ransom . 

1370 David II dies in Edinburgh Castle 

Robert Stewart, grandson of Robert Bruce, suc- 
ceeds David II 

1388 Battle of Otterburn 

1390 Robert II dies; succeeded by his son, Robert III 

1396 Fight between Clan Chattan and Clan Kay . 

140 1 Duke of Rothesay, eldest son of the King, mur- 

dered by his uncle, the Duke of Albany . 

1402 Scots defeated at Homildon Hill . 

1405 Prince James, on his way to France, captured by 

the English 

1406 Robert III dies; succeeded by his son, James I 
1424 James I returns to Scotland .... 
1437 James I murdered ; succeeded by his son, James II 
1440 William, Earl of Douglas, and his brother mur- 
dered ........ 154 

1460 James II killed at Roxburgh Castle ; succeeded by 

his son, James III ...... 166 

1479 Earl of Mar, brother of the King, murdered . 173 



Chronological Table 



331 



568 



[ 57° 



The King's favorites hanged at Lauder Bridge 
James III defeated by his nobles at Sauchie Burn, 

and murdered after the battle ; succeeded by his 

son, James IV ...... . 

James marries Margaret, daughter of Henry VII 
James defeated and slain at Flodden ; succeeded 

by his son, James V 

James V dies ; succeeded by his daughter Mary 
Scots defeat the English at Ancrum Moor 
George Wishart burned at St. Andrews, and Car 

dinal Beaton murdered 
Queen Mary sent to France 
Mary marries the Dauphin 
Mary returns to Scotland 
Mary marries Darnley . 
Murder of Rizzio 
Murder of Darnley 
Mary marries Bothwell 
Mary surrenders at Carberry Hill 
Mary imprisoned in Lochleven, and abdicates 
Mary escapes from Lochleven, and is defeated at 

Langside . 
Mary crosses to England, and is imprisoned by 

Elizabeth 

Regent Murray shot by Hamilton of Bothwell 

haugh 

Death of John Knox 

The Raid of Ruthven 

Execution of Queen Mary .... 
The Gowrie Conspiracy .... 
Union of the Crowns under James VI . 



:S2 



190 
207 

324 

2 S l 



2 53 
256 
256 
258 
261 
265 

2 73 
277 
279 
281 

287 

289 

292 



298 
307 
327 



M\ 29 1906 



